Biochar: an eco-friendly approach to improve wheat yield and associated soil properties on sustainable basis

摘要

Despite making great progress in agriculture since after green revolution, Pakistan still needs to increase agricultural production to feed its growing population with its increasing expectations while overcoming the considerable environmental and soil related problems that industrial and agricultural development has brought with it such as air and water pollution and soil acidification. Incorporation of biochar in agriculture field has the potential to be a major factor in maintaining soil fertility and productivity. The present experiments were designed to evaluate the effect of varied organic (biochar and FYM) and inorganic amendments (nitrogen, urea) on the growth and yield of wheat and associated soil properties. Incorporation of biochar in agriculture field has the potential to be a major factor in maintaining soil fertility and productivity. The experiments consisted of three factors namely: (1) Biochar (0, 25 and 50 ton ha -1 ), (2) FYM (5 and 10 ton ha -1 ) and (3) nitrogen (60 and 120 kg ha -1 ). A controlled treatment was included in the experiments. All the treatments were replicated three times in RCB design at New Developmental Farm of the University of Agriculture Peshawar Pakistan during winter 2012-13 and 2013-14. It was found that the use of BC increased wheat grain yield and biological yield by 23% and 17% respectively over non BC plots, while 49% and 31% increase in wheat leaf chlorophyll content and relative water content was measured as a result of BC application in integration with 60 kg N ha -1 as compared to control and sole application of biochar at the rate of 25 ton ha -1 . Moreover, application of FYM resulted 16% and 33% increase in wheat grain yield and biological yield over control. Likewise, wheat relative water content, leaf chlorophyll content, thousand grain weight , soil N and soil P content was increase by 17%, 11%, 15%, 8%, 13 and 24% as a result of 10 ton FYM ha -1 over 5 ton FYM ha -1 . Similarly, N application at the rate of 120 ton ha -1 improved wheat yield and yield components over control. Soil total N was increased by 8% and 4% over controlled by use of N at the rate of 60 and 120 kg ha -1 in combination with 25 ton BC ha -1 respectively. On the whole, the use of biochar in cereal crop production had shown positive effects on crop growth, yield and soil properties. However, more research is needed to evaluate the effect of lower biochar application rate on soil and crop performance.