Journal of Environmental Biology

Effect of farm yard manure on  chemical fractionation  of cadmium and its bio-availability to maize crop grown on  sewage irrigated  coarse textured soil

M.P.S. Khurana* and B.D. Kansal

Department of Soils, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana?141004, India

*Corresponding Author E-mail: khuranamps1@rediffmail.com

Publication Data

Paper received:

02 November 2011

Revised received:

11 August 2012

Re-Revised received:

07 August 2013

Accepted:

05 October 2013

Abstract

Cadmium is a potentially toxic heavy metal that enters food chain from the soil through various anthropogenic sources. Availability of metal ions in contaminated soils can be reduced by the addition of organic amendments. In this study, effect of organic matter ?farm yard manure (FYM) amendment on fractionation and availability of Cd to maize was evaluated.A green house experiment was conducted to determine the toxicity and uptake of Cd by maize in sandy loam soil with and without organic matter. Four levels of Cd (0, 10, 20 and 40 mg kg^-1soil) and two levels of FYM (0 and 20 tonnes ha^-1) with three replication  in a  completely randomized factorial design. Concentration of Cd in maize increased with increasing rate of Cd application. Application of organic matter increased the dry matter yield of maize while reduced the uptake of metal. All the fractions exhibited increase with Cd rates. The addition of organic amendment declined significantly the concentration of water soluble and exchangeable Cd, but increased the amounts of these metals into less mobile fractions (Fe/Mn oxide, organic matter and residual). Dominance of insoluble forms of Cd after the application of organic amendments may be ascribed to the increases of soil OM, pH, EC and available P contents which caused transformation or redistribution of the sorbed phases. This resulted in increasing Cd retention in the more persistent fractions with application of FYM at the expense of reductions in the loosely bound fractions. Thus FYM appears to be agronomically feasible way to off set the adverse effect of Cd toxicity.

Key words

Bio-availability, Cadmium, Critical level, Farm yard manure, Speciation

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