Impacts of Biogas Slurry Application on Soil Environment, Yield and Nutritional Quality of Baby Corn

Impacts of Biogas Slurry Application on Soil Environment, Yield and Nutritional Quality of Baby Corn.

At present, a large amount of biogas slurry is produced in India and their disposal is a major concern for the environment. So resource utilization of biogas slurry appears to be prospective and obligatory for now days. Therefore, this study investigates the potential use of byproducts of biogas production, i.e. biogas slurry (BGS) from agricultural waste treatment, as nutrient sources in agriculture. The BGS contain considerable amounts of plant nutrients, their use as soil amendment may offer a promising win-win opportunity to improve crop production and soil physical properties and, at the same time, preventing adverse environmental impacts of chemical fertilizers use and waste disposal. To study the effects in details, the field trials were conducted in two consecutive years (2013-2014). Results showed that 50% BGS along with 50% chemical fertilizer gave 20% more yield in terms of cob as well as biomass. It has been found that combination of BGS and N fertilizer increase the protein and total sugar content of the baby corn cob up to almost 100% and 41% respectively over control. There were explicit positive trend on the content of organic matter, bulk density and porosity of soil matter in the soil after the BGS application. The study showed that BGS in combination of fertilizers (1:1) should be used as soil amendments for obtaining short-term and long-term benefits in terms of production increments and soil amelioration.