Utilization of some Farm Organic Wastes for Improving Soil Productivity of the Newly Reclaimed Areas at El-Fayoum Governorate Egypt

摘要

THE CURRENT work aims to evaluate the benefit effects of different rates of the local farm organic wastes, i.e., plant residues (composted wheat-rice straw), poultry and cattle wastes for improving the productivity of some newly reclaimed soils have different lithological parent materials (aeolian and Eocene limestone formations) and developed on eastern edge of El-Fayoum Governorate, Egypt. To achieve this target, a field experiment was carried out under wheat-maize cropping sequence grown on aeolian sandy loam and calcareous clayey soils located at Demo and Tamia villages, respectively, during the two agricultural growing seasons of 2001/2002. The obtained results showed a positive benefits for improving the soil characteristics under study due tothe applied amendments, i.e., an increase or decrease in the values of bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, soil strength, available water content, pH value, organic matter content and the released content of available nutrients, i.e., N, P, K, Fe, Mn,Zn and Cu. There was a dual relationship between the applied organic amendments and hydraulic conductivity in both studied soils, where it exhibited a gradual decrease and increase with increasing the applied organic amendment rates in sandy and calcareous soils, respectively. Application of poultry wastes was very important for enhancing the previous estimated plant nutrients in soil during the first growing season as compared to the other used ones due to the fact that it had a narrow C/N ratio, relatively high contents of active organic compounds and essential nutrients for plant. The positive effects of the applied amendments on soil productivity could be arranged into the descending order of poultry wastes > cattle wastes > composted plant residues. The beneficial effects of these organic amendments were also extended to the next cultivated crop (maize) at the second growing season, but the sequence of their superiority has taken an opposite trend, i.e., composted plant residues > cattle wastes> poultry wastes. This condition is mainly related to the differences in C/N ratios between these organic amendments, and in turn the degree or rate of decaying. That means that the beneficial effect of composted plant residues, which had a wide C/N ratio, was extended to the second growing season. Concerning the nutrients uptake by plants, data revealed that an increasing trend of nutrient responses for N, P, K, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu in the plant tissues of the studied two crops with increasing the appliedamendment rates, with superiority for poultry and composted plant residues at the first and second seasons, respectively. With exception of N and K in plants grown on the sandy soil, there were positivly close to the corresponding ones of available nutrients in both studied soils, which may lead to a general suggestion that plant nutrients having an accumulative tendency in the plant tissues grown on calcareous soil under the studied conditions of the experiments. This clarified the beneficial effectsof the active organic compounds, which have ability to chclate micronutrients as available strategic storehouse, and in turn reflected positively on development of crop yield and its components