Recycling of tank silt for improving soil health and crop productivity in Telangana

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of tank silt application on soil health, soil texture and productivity of the crops in Warangal and Khammam districts of Telangana state in southern India. Tank silt was applied to the agricultural fields during desiltation of tanks. The soil samples and other data were collected separately from the fields with and without silt application during 2018-19. These soil samples were analysed for EC, pH, OC, N, P, K and soil texture. Hydrometer method was used for analysing the percentage of sand, silt and clay in the inorganic fraction of soil. The crop productivity data of paddy, cotton and chillies for both kharif and rabi seasons were collected from crop cutting experiments in 208-19. The Electrical conductivity (EC) and pH of silt applied fields decreased upto 15.91% and 1.19% respectively. The organic carbon (OC), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) of a soil increased upto 10.13%, 41.38%, 76.58% and 46.70% in silt applied fields respectively. The percentage of sand decreased from 44.83 to 32.03 and clay increased from 38.93 to 51.87 in silt applied fields. The crop productivity increased upto 30-36% in Paddy, Cotton and Chillies. Therefore the EC, pH and percentage of sand of a soil decreased in silt applied fields due to the application of silt; OC, N, P, K, percentage of silt and clay increased due to application of silt, as it has high porous, fertile and biological materials in it. This study concluded that the tank silt application helped in improving the soil health and storage capacity of the tanks. The groundwater levels also increased after tank desiltation works thereby increasing the cultural command area and crop productivity.