| Peer-Reviewed

Terra Preta: Organic Manure from Septage for Improving Crop Productivity

Received: 13 May 2022     Accepted: 26 May 2022     Published: 9 June 2022
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

The lost nutrient rich top soil from the surface of the earth can be replenished by the use of organic fertilizers. Terra Preta (TP) is high quality organic fertilizer with potential to replace chemical fertilizers (CF). This organic fertilizer competes with CF in providing adequate nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) to soil as well as crops. The present study focuses on production of TP using septage sludge, which was tested on two different agricultural crops at field scale. Field experiments were conducted at Santa Cruz, Goa, India, in two different crops namely Capsicum frutescens (chili) and Oryza sativa (paddy) at one acre capacity. In this, standard CF was treated with TP on yield and other plant growth parameters. Different ratios of CF with TP (TP, TP+50% CF, TP+75% CF, TP+100% CF), recommended dose of CF and farmer’s practice were studied. The results of the study suggested that the use of TP increased yield by 15% and 16% for C. frutescens and O. sativa respectively when compared to control. The increase in other parameters such as plant height and leaf length was also significant with TP as 15% and 10% respectively. However for O. sativa, the plant height was found to be 10.7% higher than 23% more biological yield.

Published in Science Frontiers (Volume 3, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14
Page(s) 88-95
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Organic Fertilizers, Terra Preta (TP), Vermi-Composting, Septage and Nutrient Recovery

References
[1] R. N. Roy, A. Finck, G. Blair, H. Tandon, Plant nutrition for food security. A guide for integrated nutrient management, 2006, pp. 368.
[2] N. Ghosh, Reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers and its financial implications for farmers in India, Ecological Economics, 49 (2004) 149-162.
[3] R. Prasad, Efficient fertilizer use: The key to food security and better environment, Journal of tropical agriculture, 47 (2009) 1-17.
[4] D. D. Reddy, A. S. Rao, T. Rupa, Effects of continuous use of cattle manure and fertilizer phosphorus on crop yields and soil organic phosphorus in a Vertisol, Bioresource Technology, 75 (2000) 113-118.
[5] C. Narayanan, Production of Phosphate-Rich Biofertiliser Using Vermicompost and Anaerobic Digestor Sludge—A Case Study, Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science, (2012).
[6] M. Prabhu, M. Horvat, L. Lorenz, R. Otterpohl, T. Bettendorf, S. Mutnuri, Effect of terra preta compost on growth of Vigna radiate, Terra Preta Sanitation.
[7] M. Prabhu, M. Horvat, L. Lorenz, R. Otterpohl, T. Bettendorf, S. Mutnuri, Terra Preta as an alternative for the management of sludge from wastewater treatment plant, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Terra Preta Sanitation, Hamburg, Germany, 2013.
[8] J.-S. Kim, G. Sparovek, R. M. Longo, W. J. De Melo, D. Crowley, Bacterial diversity of terra preta and pristine forest soil from the Western Amazon, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 39 (2007) 684-690.
[9] N. Andreev, M. Ronteltap, P. N. Lens, B. Boincean, L. Bulat, E. Zubcov, Lacto-fermented mix of faeces and bio-waste supplemented by biochar improves the growth and yield of corn (Zea mays L.), Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 232 (2016) 263-272.
[10] E. H. Novotny, M. H. Hayes, B. E. Madari, T. J. Bonagamba, E. R. d. Azevedo, A. A. d. Souza, G. Song, C. M. Nogueira, A. S. Mangrich, Lessons from the Terra Preta de Índios of the Amazon region for the utilisation of charcoal for soil amendment, Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society, 20 (2009) 1003-1010.
[11] B. Glaser, J. J. Birk, State of the scientific knowledge on properties and genesis of Anthropogenic Dark Earths in Central Amazonia (terra preta de Índio), Geochimica et Cosmochimica acta, 82 (2012) 39-51.
[12] Department-of-Agriculture, Comprehensive District Agricultural plan, Maharashtra, India, 2012-17.
[13] H. Factura, T. Bettendorf, C. Buzie, H. Pieplow, J. Reckin, R. Otterpohl, Terra Preta sanitation: re-discovered from an ancient Amazonian civilisation–integrating sanitation, bio-waste management and agriculture, Water Science Technology, 61 (2010) 2673-2679.
[14] I. P. Gautam, B. Khatri, G. P. Paudel, Evaluation of Different Vaireties of Onion and their Transplanting Times for Off-season Production in Mid Hills of Nepal, Nepal Agriculture Research Journal, 7 (2006) 21-26.
[15] FAO, Plant Nutrition Bulletin, 18, (2008).
[16] B. o. I. Standards, Indian Standard Muncipal Solid Waste Compost, Manure Grade - Specification, (2013).
[17] R. R. Yaragal, D. Kumar, S. Mutnuri, Development of UPLC-MS/MS method for analyzing phorate: application to wastewater treatment, Journal of the Iranian Chemical Society, 17 (2020) 2923-2931.
[18] R. Shet, S. Mutnuri, Anaerobic co-digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste and septage for sustainable waste treatment: a case study from Goa, India, European Journal of Energy Research, 1 (2021) 1-8.
[19] FAO, FAO fertilizer and plant nutrition bulletin, FAO, 1979.
[20] T. B. Hammed, E. O. Oloruntoba, G. Ana, Enhancing growth and yield of crops with nutrient-enriched organic fertilizer at wet and dry seasons in ensuring climate-smart agriculture, International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture, 8 (2019) 81-92.
[21] B. Glaser, L. Haumaier, G. Guggenberger, W. Zech, The'Terra Preta'phenomenon: a model for sustainable agriculture in the humid tropics, Naturwissenschaften, 88 (2001) 37-41. https://www.random.org/lists/
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Ravikiran Shet, Nand Nitin Kamat, Shree Sharan, Srikanth Mutnuri. (2022). Terra Preta: Organic Manure from Septage for Improving Crop Productivity. Science Frontiers, 3(2), 88-95. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Ravikiran Shet; Nand Nitin Kamat; Shree Sharan; Srikanth Mutnuri. Terra Preta: Organic Manure from Septage for Improving Crop Productivity. Sci. Front. 2022, 3(2), 88-95. doi: 10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Ravikiran Shet, Nand Nitin Kamat, Shree Sharan, Srikanth Mutnuri. Terra Preta: Organic Manure from Septage for Improving Crop Productivity. Sci Front. 2022;3(2):88-95. doi: 10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14,
      author = {Ravikiran Shet and Nand Nitin Kamat and Shree Sharan and Srikanth Mutnuri},
      title = {Terra Preta: Organic Manure from Septage for Improving Crop Productivity},
      journal = {Science Frontiers},
      volume = {3},
      number = {2},
      pages = {88-95},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sf.20220302.14},
      abstract = {The lost nutrient rich top soil from the surface of the earth can be replenished by the use of organic fertilizers. Terra Preta (TP) is high quality organic fertilizer with potential to replace chemical fertilizers (CF). This organic fertilizer competes with CF in providing adequate nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) to soil as well as crops. The present study focuses on production of TP using septage sludge, which was tested on two different agricultural crops at field scale. Field experiments were conducted at Santa Cruz, Goa, India, in two different crops namely Capsicum frutescens (chili) and Oryza sativa (paddy) at one acre capacity. In this, standard CF was treated with TP on yield and other plant growth parameters. Different ratios of CF with TP (TP, TP+50% CF, TP+75% CF, TP+100% CF), recommended dose of CF and farmer’s practice were studied. The results of the study suggested that the use of TP increased yield by 15% and 16% for C. frutescens and O. sativa respectively when compared to control. The increase in other parameters such as plant height and leaf length was also significant with TP as 15% and 10% respectively. However for O. sativa, the plant height was found to be 10.7% higher than 23% more biological yield.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Terra Preta: Organic Manure from Septage for Improving Crop Productivity
    AU  - Ravikiran Shet
    AU  - Nand Nitin Kamat
    AU  - Shree Sharan
    AU  - Srikanth Mutnuri
    Y1  - 2022/06/09
    PY  - 2022
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14
    T2  - Science Frontiers
    JF  - Science Frontiers
    JO  - Science Frontiers
    SP  - 88
    EP  - 95
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2994-7030
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220302.14
    AB  - The lost nutrient rich top soil from the surface of the earth can be replenished by the use of organic fertilizers. Terra Preta (TP) is high quality organic fertilizer with potential to replace chemical fertilizers (CF). This organic fertilizer competes with CF in providing adequate nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) to soil as well as crops. The present study focuses on production of TP using septage sludge, which was tested on two different agricultural crops at field scale. Field experiments were conducted at Santa Cruz, Goa, India, in two different crops namely Capsicum frutescens (chili) and Oryza sativa (paddy) at one acre capacity. In this, standard CF was treated with TP on yield and other plant growth parameters. Different ratios of CF with TP (TP, TP+50% CF, TP+75% CF, TP+100% CF), recommended dose of CF and farmer’s practice were studied. The results of the study suggested that the use of TP increased yield by 15% and 16% for C. frutescens and O. sativa respectively when compared to control. The increase in other parameters such as plant height and leaf length was also significant with TP as 15% and 10% respectively. However for O. sativa, the plant height was found to be 10.7% higher than 23% more biological yield.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Water Sanitation and Hygiene Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa, India

  • BacTreat Environmental Solutions LLP, BITS BIRAC BIONEST, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa, India

  • BacTreat Environmental Solutions LLP, BITS BIRAC BIONEST, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa, India

  • Water Sanitation and Hygiene Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa, India

  • Sections