Effect of Consecutive Application of Phosphorus-Enriched Biochar with Different Levels of P on Growth Performance of Maize for Two Successive Growing Seasons

Farman Wali, Shahid Sardar, Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Asif, Mohammad Tahsin Karimi Nezhad, Khurram Shehzad Baig, Mohsin Bashir and Adnan Mustafa
Additional contact information
Farman Wali: Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Shahid Sardar: Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Muhammad Naveed: Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Muhammad Asif: Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Mohammad Tahsin Karimi Nezhad: Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj 6616935391, Iran
Khurram Shehzad Baig: Soil Fertility Institute, Lahore 53700, Pakistan
Mohsin Bashir: Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Adnan Mustafa: Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Environmental Protection, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkynova 118, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Sustainable management of phosphorus (P) is one of the burning issues in agriculture because the reported P losses, when applied in the form of mineral fertilizer, give rise to another issue of water pollution as P is considered one of the limiting nutrients for eutrophication and so results in costly water treatments. In the present study, the enrichment of biochar with mineral P fertilizer was supposed to reduce such losses from the soil. Additionally, P can also be recycled through this technique at the same time as biochar is derived from biomass. Biochar was prepared using wheat straw followed by its enrichment with di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) at the ratio of 1:1 on a w/w basis. The first pot trial for spring maize (cv. Neelam) was conducted using phosphorus-enriched biochar (PEB) at 0% and 1% with different levels of recommended P (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%). The treatments were arranged factorially under a complete randomized design (CRD) with three replications. After harvesting the spring maize, pots were kept undisturbed, and a second pot trial was conducted for autumn maize in the same pots to assess the residual impact of 1% PEB. In the second pot trial, only inorganic P was applied to respective treatments because the pots contained 1% PEB supplied to spring maize. The results revealed that the application of 1% PEB at P level 50% significantly increased all the recorded plant traits (growth, yield, and physiological and chemical parameters) and some selected properties of post-harvest soil (available P, organic matter, and EC) but not soil pH. In terms of yield, 1% PEB at 50% P significantly increased both the number of grains and 100-grain weight by around 30% and 21% in spring and autumn maize, respectively, as compared to 100% P without PEB. It is therefore recommended that P-enriched biochar should be used to reduce the inorganic P fertilizer inputs; however, its application under field conditions should be assessed in future research.

Keywords: biochar; crop production; residual effect; sustainable agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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