Stabilization of As, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn in soil using amendments – A review

Food production in developing countries, estimated at 1223 million metric tons (Mg), must be increased by 778 million Mg or 2·5 per cent y−1 between 2000 and 2025 to meet the needs of an increased population and projected change in diet. Among numerous options, the one based on enhancing soil quality and agronomic productivity per unit area through improvement in soil organic carbon pool has numerous ancillary benefits. The available data show that crop yields can be increased by 20–70 kg ha−1 for wheat, 10–50 kg ha−1 for rice, and 30–300 kg ha−1 for maize with every 1 Mg ha−1 increase in soil organic carbon pool in the root zone. Adoption of recommended management practices on agricultural lands and degraded soils would enhance soil quality including the available water holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, soil aggregation, and susceptibility to crusting and erosion. Increase in soil organic carbon pool by 1 Mg ha−1 y−1 can increase food grain production by 32 million Mg y−1 in developing countries. While advancing food security, this strategy would also off-set fossil fuel emissions at the rate of 0·5 Pg C y−1 through carbons sequestration in agricultural soils of developing countries. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

http://tinread.usarb.md:8888/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1047/1/enhancing_crop.pdf

Enhancing crop yields in the developing countries through restoration of the soil organic carbon pool in agricultural lands.

Ash-related issues during biomass combustion: Alkali-induced slagging, silicate melt-induced slagging (ash fusion), agglomeration, corrosion, ash utilization, and related countermeasures

Impact of fly ash incorporation in soil systems.

Fly ash as a soil ameliorant for improving crop production--a review.

Effect of fly ash, organic wastes and chemical fertilizers on yield, nutrient uptake, heavy metal content and residual fertility in a rice-mustard cropping sequence under acid lateritic soils.

In black tea manufacturing, one of the most important steps is fermentation which influences the quality of tea. The macerated tea leaves were fermented at various temperatures (20, 25, 30, 35 °C) for different duration. Changes in polyphenoloxidase and peroxidase activities, depletion patterns of individual catechins, differences in individual theaflavin levels and formation of thearubigins were measured in leaves during fermentation. Higher stability of polyphenoloxidase and peroxidase enzymes was observed at lower temperature (20 °C), and increase in temperature, led to enzyme instability. The rate of degradation of all the catechins was found to be fastest at 35 °C and slowest at 20 °C. The formation and depletion of individual theaflavins varied with temperature and fermentation duration. The time required for the formation of maximum total theaflavins (TF) was highest at lower temperature and this time duration also varied for different theaflavins formation. Maximum amount of thearubigins (TR) content and liquor colour development was observed at 35 °C, and decrease in temperature reduced thearubigins accumulation. However, maximum brightness as well as TF/TR ratio was obtained at 20 °C, which suggests that fermentation at lower temperature is suitable for manufacturing quality black tea.

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Assessing biochemical changes during standardization of fermentation time and temperature for manufacturing quality black tea

Nutrient management plays a key role in improving crop yield with maintenance of soil fertility for sustainable production in intensive cropping. Field experiments were conducted to study the effect of organic and conventional fertilizer sources on growth, yield, and nitrogen use efficiency of tomato and sweet corn crop and on changes in chemical and biological properties in acid lateritic soil of eastern India. The tomato was grown during dry season (November - February) and sweet corn during wet season (May - July) in the cropping system during the years 2008 to 2010. The organic nutrient inputs were vermicompost (VC), vermiwash (VW), biofertilizer (BF) and crop residue (CR) and the conventional input was chemical fertilizer (CF). The treatments were CF at 100% recommended dose of N, P and K (CF100), VC at 100% N recommendation (VC100), VC50+CF50, CR, VC50+CR, VC50+VW+BF, and a control (no fertilizer application). The treatments with optimal dose of fertilizer application i.e. CF100, VC100 and VC50 + CF50 were statistically at par and they were significantly superior to suboptimal dose of VC with other organic sources, in increasing yield of both tomato and sweet corn. Among the fertilized treatments, maximum N uptake was noted in CF100 treatment, but maximum N use efficiency in VC-based treatments. The VC-based treatments registered lower soil available macronutrients (N, P and K), but higher organic carbon and micronutrient (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) as compared to CF treatment at the end of two years cropping system. Inclusion of BF in VC-based treatment was more promising in increasing the microbial count by three fold as compared to the CF treatment. Organic fertilizer application, therefore exhibited potential in improving crop yield, N use efficiency and soil health in acid lateritic soil of the subtropical climate.

/pdf/comparative-assessment-of-conventional-and-organic-nutrient-24ae3bon77.pdf

Comparative assessment of conventional and organic nutrient management on crop growth and yield and soil fertility in tomato-sweet corn production system

Standard plucking of fresh tea leaves is one of the major factors in determining tea quality, apart from processing conditions. Tea quality is a function of metabolite content and declines with leaf maturity. In this work, we studied the metabolic consequences of leaf maturity on tea leaf quality by metabolite profiling. Significant variation in metabolite levels was observed during tea leaf maturation. The concentration of catechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin gallate and total catechins decreased with leaf maturity while epicatechin and epigallocatechin showed reverse trend. A concentration dependent increase with leaf maturity was noted for cell wall-bound phenolics, which was predominated by gallic acid followed by trans p-coumaric acid. The relative abundance of monoterpenoids declined with leaf age while fatty acid derivative volatiles showed inverse trend. Activities of shikimate dehydrogenase and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase also decreased with leaf age. The transcript levels of flavone-3-hydroxylase and anthocyanidin synthase showed a significant positive correlation with total catechins content. Interestingly, accumulation of total catechin showed significant negative correlation with total fatty acid derivative volatiles, total wall-bound phenolics, chlorophyll and volatile benzenoids during leaf development. This suggests a possible alteration of carbon pool in tea leaf during maturation. We hypothesize that the declination of flavan-3-ols biosynthesis in mature leaves might lead to a shifting of carbon flow in the direction of linked metabolic pathway related to chlorophyll, wall-bound phenolics, benzenoids and fatty acids biosynthesis.

Changes in targeted metabolites, enzyme activities and transcripts at different developmental stages of tea leaves: a study for understanding the biochemical basis of tea shoot plucking

Nutrient management plays an important role in yield and quality of tomatoes. A field experiment was conducted during the years 2008–09 and 2009–10 to analyze the effect of organic and conventional sources of fertilizer on yield and quality of tomatoes in an acid lateritic soil of India. The organic sources of fertilizer were vermicompost (VC), crop residue (CR), vermiwash (VW) and biofertilizer (BF). The conventional input was chemical fertilizer (CF) applied at recommended dose of 100:80:60 kg ha−1 of N:P2O5:K2O for the tomato. The organic source VC was used to supply 100% N recommendation as single source or 50% N recommendation when combined with CF or organic sources. Maximum fruit yield was recorded when CF was applied at full dose, which was on a par with VC at full recommendation. A higher percentage of large-size fruits (>7 cm) was obtained in VC-based treatments compared with CF treatment. Vermicompost at full dose increased ascorbic acid, beta carotene, total soluble solids and color value comp...

B. C. Ghosh

Papers

Effect of fly ash, organic wastes and chemical fertilizers on yield, nutrient uptake, heavy metal content and residual fertility in a rice-mustard cropping sequence under acid lateritic soils.

Assessing biochemical changes during standardization of fermentation time and temperature for manufacturing quality black tea

Comparative assessment of conventional and organic nutrient management on crop growth and yield and soil fertility in tomato-sweet corn production system

Changes in targeted metabolites, enzyme activities and transcripts at different developmental stages of tea leaves: a study for understanding the biochemical basis of tea shoot plucking

Yield and quality of tomato grown under organic and conventional nutrient management