PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

 

e-ISSN 2231-8542
ISSN 1511-3701

Home / Regular Issue / JTAS Vol. 41 (4) Nov. 2018 / JTAS-1392-2018

 

Impact Assessment of Organic Farming on Soil Nutrients and Heavy Metal Content

Azeez, J. O., Ojewande, B. O., Olayinka, O. O. and Adesodun, J. K.

Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 41, Issue 4, November 2018

Keywords: Heavy metals, land use, organic farming, soil nutrients

Published on: 16 Nov 2018

Environmental sustainability of recent adoption of organic farming as a wholesome practice in sub-Saharan Africa needs to be investigated, in order to guide agricultural policy makers. Consequently, an assessment of soil chemical properties was done in an organic farm with different land uses. The experiment was 5 Ă— 3 factorial design (five land uses and three soil depths) replicated temporally (two contrasting seasons) and spatially (four replications). Samples collected systematically at 0 - 20, 20 - 40 and 40 - 60 cm depths were analysed for pH, organic carbon, nutrients and heavy metals. Results indicated that manure application limed the soil. Soil pH ranged from 5.1 to 6.3 in grass-land and 5.8 to 6.4 in amaranth farm during dry and wet seasons, respectively. Generally, nutrients and heavy metals were concentrated at 0-20 cm depth. The effect of season on the parameters was erratic. Amounts of mobile, exchangeable and labile Cu were 0.13 - 0.19, 0.07 - 0.15 and 1.39 - 1.74 mg kg-1, respectively while water soluble and mobile fraction Zn ranged from 0.15 - 0.20 and 0.29 - 0.62 mg kg-1. Comparatively, all the metals labile pool was most abundant, while Pb was the most abundant metal. There was no evidence of heavy metal accumulation in the organic system.

ISSN 1511-3701

e-ISSN 2231-8542

Article ID

JTAS-1392-2018

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