Long term impact of waste water irrigation and nutrient rates: I. Performance, sustainability and produce quality of peri urban cropping systems

P.S. Minhas, Khajanchi-Lal,, R.K. Yadav, S.K. Dubey and Rajkumar Chaturvedi ()

Agricultural Water Management, 2015, vol. 156, issue C, 100-109

Abstract: Farmers in peri-urban areas of developing countries depend on wastewaters for their livelihood but with grave health and environmental risks. An 8-year field experiment compared food grain (FGPS), agroforestry (AFS), fodder (FPS) and vegetable (VPS) production systems and quantified responses to fertilizers (NP 25–100%) when irrigated with sewage (SW; EC 1.3±0.3dSm−1 BOD 82±11, NO3–N 3.2±0.4, NH4–N 9.6±0.5, P 1.8±0.3, K 6.4±0.4mgL−1) vis-à-vis groundwater (GW). Productivity improved with SW by 14–28% while trends were negative with sub-optimal NP under GW. Partial factor productivity (PFP) averaged 18.0, 11.1, 157 and 149kgkg−1 NP with GW in FGPS, AFS, FPS and VPS, respectively. Counter figures were 13.8, 8.8, 96 and 56kgkg−1 NP with SW. Paddy-wheat equivalent yields were 5.5, 1.8 and 19.9 fold under AFS, FPS and VPS with SW. About 40, 33, 75 and 20% of fertilizer NP with SW was sufficient for similar production as with recommended NP and GW in FGPS, AFS, FPS and VPS, respectively. Quality of produce improved in terms of crude protein and the micronutrients in edible parts with SW while toxic metals were within the permissible limits. However, the keeping quality of vegetables was lowered due to faster decay with pathogens contamination (Aerobic bacterial plate counts 5×105–4.2×108cfug−1 and Escherichia coli <2×102–7×105). Thus, the sewage proved as a vital resource in improving productivity, sustainability and saving fertiliser costs but this may pose health risks because of pathogenic infestation that need to be regulated.

Keywords: Wastewater irrigation; Cropping systems; Sustainability; Fertilizer saving; Produce quality; Peri-urban agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377415000876
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:156:y:2015:i:c:p:100-109

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2015.03.012

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().