Impacts of Wastewater Irrigation on Soil in Wheat Production

The soil behavior is highly affected by wastewater irrigation. The sewage water as irrigation water can be explored in arid and semi-arid regions as alternate water resource. The safe utilization of treated wastewater does not only conserve freshwater resources but also helps in increasing agricultural production. In this direction, experiments focusing reuse of sewage effluent in the irrigation of wheat were conducted at the Campus of Nirma University, Ahmedabad. The experiment involved various treatments according to the application of sewage water, groundwater, and surface water in different blending ratios and various treatments according to the application of nitrogenous fertilizer with three replications. The soil conditions immediately after wheat cultivation are analyzed under said treatments. By analyzing F and P-value in hypothesis testing through two-factor analysis of variance, it was found that the main effects of irrigation treatment on electrical conductivity (EC), lead and manganese are significantm whereas the same on copper, zinc, and iron are nonsignificant at the 0.05 significance level. It is also observed that the main effects of fertilizer treatment on EC, lead, copper, zinc, manganese, and iron are non-significant at said significance level. . KEYWORDS :Sewage water, Groundwater, Surface water, Wheat, Heavy metals