IMPACT OF PAPER MILL EFFLUENT ON GROUNDNUT SOIL MICROFLORA AND SOIL ENZYMES

摘要

Use of wastes from industries as soil amendments in agricultural production exemplifies a strategy for converting wastes to resources. The overall objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of treated paper mill effluent along with solid wastes on soil microflora and enzyme activities of groundnut. Effluent irrigation along with amendments increased the physico-chemical and biological properties of the soil. Irrigation with treated effluent increased the beneficial microflora like Azospirillum, Azotobacter, Rhizobium, soil enzyme activities and available nutrients. The amylase activity varied from 0.62 to 0.72 and 0.31 to 0.61 mg in the effluent and well water irrigated plots respectively. The CO_2 evolved showed a variation of 3.98 to 6.25 mg in effluent irrigated plots and 2.63 to 3.58 mg in well water irrigated plots. The above study revealed that treated paper mill effluent irrigation along with amendments was not harmful to the soil microbial population and its activities rather than uncontrolled release of raw waste water into the environment.