Scilight Press

Combined use of municipal solid waste compost enriched with sulphur and gypsum can provide a convincing solution for ameliorating sodic soils and sustaining crop productivity. In this context, a controlled condition study was carried out on composting of MSW alone and its enrichment with element sulphur and gypsum followed by evaluation of the efficiency of MSW compost and products of its enrichment for amelioration of sodic soil. A pot experiment was conducted during 2020 to 2021 at Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana (India) on two levels of soil sodicity (highly sodic soil pH 10.09 and moderate sodic soil pH 8.72) to evaluate the efficacy of sulphur and gypsum enriched MSW compost on sodic soil reclamation and sustainable yield production of rice. Three treatments (MSW+ES, MSW+G and MSW compost alone) were applied in different doses in sodic soil (highly and moderate sodic). MSW+ES (T₄) significantly reduced the soil pH2 up to 13.5%, Na⁺ up to 32%, ESP up to 41% and enhanced grain yield 33% as compared to control (non-amended soil). Out of all amended doses D₃ (@ 300 g/15 kg soil) was found most effective in reducing pH, Na⁺ about 13.8 and 30.6, respectively. MSW compost alone or MSW enriched with gypsum was not much effective in sodicity reclamation. This study has proved that MSW enriched with sulphur can be used as an effective solution for improving soil physico-chemical properties and crop productivity in sodic soils.