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VARIATIONS IN NUTRIENT CONCENTRATIONS OF WHEAT AND PADDY AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT LEVELS OF COMPOST AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZER IN NORMAL SOIL

G. SARWAR¹, H. SCHMEISKY², N. HUSSAIN³, S. MUHAMMAD⁴ M.A. TAHIR¹ AND U. SALEEM¹

Abstract: Rice-Wheat system is one of the most important cropping sequences adopted on large areas not only in Pakistan but also in many other countries of the world. Rice and wheat straw is the main crop residue that is largely burnt due to introduction of mechanical harvesters. This burning poses diversified pollution problems like ashes, production of heat and toxic gases and burning of nearby useful plants. The cost of production of rice and wheat crops is going high and high due to ever escalating prices of chemical fertilizers. The burning of precious organic matter is the major factor of low fertility status and poor physical properties of soil. Resultantly, the soils cannot give yield of crops according to the full potential. The cost of crop production can be brought down if sources of nutrients available at farm (crop residues and animal wastes) be brought under the input cycle. The compost was used for nutrient supplementation alone and along with chemical fertilizer for rice and wheat crops. Plant samples of rice and wheat were analyzed for nutrients (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and it was observed from the data that concentration of these nutrients increased significantly with the application of compost. The nutritional status of plants was further strengthened when chemical fertilizer was combined with compost. Hence, compost can be used to enrich the chemical composition of rice and wheat straw as well as grains and at the same time the pollution problem created due to burning of rice and wheat residues could also greatly be solved.

¹University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan

²University of Kassel, Nordbahnnof Str-1A, 37213, Witzenhausen, Germany

³Soil Salinity Research Institute (SSRI), Pindi Bhattian, Punjab, Pakistan

⁴Directorate of Organic Farming, NARC, Islamabad, Pakistan