Impact of Fly Ash on Soil Properties and Productivity

Fly ash is considered as a good soil & source of secondary plant nutrients as well as micronutrients and can significantly improve the physio-chemical properties of the soil due to increase in porosity and water holding capacity. It can efficiently be used as a source of pesticide carrier, plant growth promoter etc. It has also been reported to be safe for agricultural application in context of toxicology & radioactivity. The poor infiltration and fine texture of clay soil causes water logging problem and reduces biological activities in soil. In contrast to this, loose particle and higher in filterability in sandy soil results in low water holding capacity and poor nutrient retention. Fly ash, a waste product of thermal power plants, causes environmental pollution and is hazardous to human health. Fly ash may be used as amendment to improve soil properties and plant growth in soils. The addition of 20% fly ash in decade soil and up to 30% in sandy soils improved the germination, plant height, biological and grain yield of wheat. The addition of fly-ash has also shown improvement in the soil properties viz. texture, structure and bulk density. Permeability of clay loam soil increased from 0.54cm/hr to 2.14cm/hr by the addition of 50% fly ash whereas it decreased from 23.80 cm/hr to 9.67 cm/hr in sandy soil by addition of 50% fly-ash. Water holding capacity of sandy soil also increased from 0.38 cm/cm to 0.53 cm/cm at 50% level. The agricultural productivity increased by addition up to 30% fly ash and 10% compost in different type of soil as experimented in the present study.