Changes in physical and chemical properties of saline soil amended with municipal solid waste compost and chemical fertilizers in a mustard–pearl millet cropping system

• Published in: Land degradation & development Vol. 33; no. 10; pp. 1677 - 1688
• Main Authors: Meena, Murli Dhar, Narjary, Bhaskar, Sheoran, Parvender, Jat, Hanuman Sahay, Joshi, Pramod Kumar, Chinchmalatpure, Anil R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.06.2022; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Agricultural ecosystems; Agrochemicals; Aridity; Cereal crops; Chemical properties; Composting; Crop yield; Fertilizers; Field tests; Gypsum; Millet; Moisture content; Multivariate analysis; Municipal solid waste; municipal solid waste compost; Municipal waste management; Mustard; Organic carbon; Organic soils; Pennisetum glaucum; Phosphorus; Physical properties; Pore size; Pore size distribution; Potassium; Saline soils; Salinity; Salinity effects; salt dynamics; Size distribution; Soil amendment; Soil dynamics; Soil environment; Soil fertility; soil hydro‐physical properties; Soil improvement; Soil physical properties; Soil properties; Soil salinity; Soil stability; Soil water; Solid waste management; Solid wastes
• ISSN: 1085-3278; 1099-145X
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.4256

Soil salinity is a severe threat in arid and semiarid agro‐ecosystem of India, and it is directly influenced by soil physical properties. Therefore, understanding the dynamic nature of salinity is the key to implementing suitable management options for re‐builing the fertility of saline soils. In this context, we conducted field experiments in saline soil, comprising five treatments (1‐5 following) and a control (C). These are: C) no amendments and chemical fertilizer; T1) recommended dose nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N‐P‐K) fertilizers @60:30:30 kg ha−1; T2) 100% recommended dose of chemical fertilizers (RDF).; T3) rice straw compost (RSC) @14 Mg ha−1; T4) gypsum enriched compost (GEC) @14 Mg ha−1; and T5) municipal solid waste compost @16 Mg ha−1 (MSWC) applied for three consecutive years (2012 to 2015). Our results revealed that compost and chemical fertilizer had significant effect on soil organic carbon, soil aggregate stability indices, soil water retention, transmission characteristics, and pore size distribution. This improvement in soil physical properties imparted into better soil physical environment and significant reduction in soil salinity (75%) was apparent with application of MSWC. Multivariate analysis indicated that mean weight diameter (MWD) and retension pores (RP) were the two main soil physical properties that help to reduce soil salinity. Our results revealed that, MWD increased by 49.1% in MSWC and 37.7% in GEC over control (C) (0.53 mm). Improvement in soil environment under composted soil produced significantly higher grain yield of mustard (2.22 Mg ha−1) and pearl millet (2.29 Mg ha−1) with MSWC as compared to control (C). Organic amendments significantly improved the soil physical environment.