You Don’t Need To Be A Farmer To Grow Food At Home

                     “Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”

We people depend on plants to get food. Most of the things we eat like rice, wheat, vegetables and fruits come from trees and plants. Apart from these blessings all our luxuries like chocolate, nuts, spices and herbs wouldn’t be available to us without plants and trees. Growing trees and plants is not that much tricky as we think. There is no rocket science involved. All of us can grow plants and trees at our home. Growing healthy and edible plants at home not only give us the fresh and healthy food but also an attractive landscape and a refreshing air. Though it’s not tricky to grow plants at home but there are some tips that we have to know to get the best.

Helpful plant growing tips for indoor plants:

Sunny window is a must: 

All you need is to have a sunny window in your kitchen or living room and some extra time for plantation, and then you will be able to grow your own food right at your home. Here are some other tips to grow healthy plants indoor.

Plants need well-draining soil: 

Almost all types of edible plants need a well-draining soil. So make sure that the pot or window box you are using has holes in the bottom. Another way is to make a layer of stones at the bottom of your pot under the soil. Use some kind of container to place under the pot for drainage, if you are using a pot with holes. 

Sunlight is very much important for indoor plants: 

Sunlight is another important factor. Choose the area that receives lot of sunlight and remain warm all the day. For this purpose, the sunny windows are the best option. But, if you don’t have a sunny window, you can use grow lights. Grow lights are a better option for indoor plants to provide them optimum light and temperature.

Potting mix can be a better option for plants:

Potting mix can be a better option for healthy houseplants. If you don’t have a fertile soil available in your area, you can use potting mix in pots of you indoor plants. Potting mix contains peat, bark, sand, per lite and small amount of fertilizers which are essential to grow healthy indoor plants. Moreover, water the plants and prune the shoots regularly to keep your plants healthy. Soil should remain moist but not mushy.Grow your own food at your home, contribute in reducing the environmental pollution, have a healthy life style.

 

Phosphatic Fertilizers And Agriculture In Pakistan

Pakistan’s economy is based on agriculture but still, Pakistan is facing a shortage of grains in the country, there is a big gap between supply and demand. Wheat is an important cereal crop worldwide as well as in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the average yield potential is much less than growing countries of the world. A deficit of wheat supply is very often in the country and Government is imposed to import wheat by allocating an enormous amount of foreign exchange. To fulfill the demand it is important to maximize the cultivation of food grains. There are different reasons of low wheat production in our country as delay in wheat sowing due to a late vocation of rice field and low availability of phosphorus (P) due to its fixation in our soils. 

Application of Fertilizers

The increase in grain yield is related to an increased application of fertilizer or more truly the increased uptake of nutrients. Soil nutrient statistics important for maintaining high quality and sustainable crop production. It is very important to maintain soil nutrients at a sufficient level, to maintain optimum plant growth. Application of fertilizers is optional because their costs are too high for farmer, so high use of these fertilizers is not profitable. Almost all the soils in Pakistan have poor fertility status due to lack of organic matter and arid climate as soils developed under severe climate are poor in organic matter and nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important growth-limiting nutrients. Phosphorus is a naturally occurring element that can be found in the earth’s crust and all living organisms. In plants, it plays a vital role in many physiological processes such as the promotion of early heading and uniform maturity, a growth of early root and seedling, It also supports seed formation, increases seed quality and water-use efficiency. Phosphorus is also important during major biochemical processes like respiration, cell division, photosynthesis, storage and transfer of energy.

 

Conditions of Pakistani Soils

Most Pakistani soils are alkaline having pH > 7.0 as well as calcareous (CaCO3 > 3.0%) in nature. Phosphorus fixation is a severe problem in alkaline and calcareous soils. When Phosphatic fertilizers are applied to the soil, < 1% of it becomes part of soil solution for uptake by plants. While remaining goes to exchange sites and it is either adsorbed or precipitated. The average recovery of phosphorus fertilizer by crops is very low and varies from 15-20% on single crop basis. It is estimated that phosphorus recovery in alkaline calcareous soil is 0.02 to 0.5%. This is because of the high phosphorus fixation property of our soils. It is estimated that 80-90% of Pakistani soils fall in the range between low to medium in phosphorus concentration and high in calcareous. According to a study, Punjab province is losing phosphorus at a rate of 0.016 ppm per year. This may be attributed to reversion of applied phosphates to less available forms such as coat-calcium phosphates, carbonate apatite, hydroxide apatite and flour apatite by reacting with clay and calcium compounds. Applying good source of fertilizers may resolve this problem.

By Shoaib Aslam

Water Pollution | Source and Causes of Water Pollution

Water pollution is basically any physical, chemical or biological change in water quality which disturbs the living organisms quite badly. Water pollution makes a water resource incongruous for many of its beneficial uses. From beneficial uses of water resources we mean irrigation, public water supply, industrial production and recreation etc. This pollution could be a result of weathering conditions and soil erosion but mainly it is related to human activities, directly or indirectly. 

Sources of water pollution:

Domestic waste: 

One of the biggest sources of water pollution is the domestic waste and sewage. Pathogens present in raw sewage contaminate water and make it oily and brownish with a foul odor. Organic waste from domestic sewage gives rise to sludge that makes water unsuitable for using in recreation and industrial use. Detergents present in domestic sewage accumulate in water as they degrade very slowly. Phosphates present in detergents improve growth of algal blooms in water making it unfit for human and animal use. 

Fertilizers: 

Fertilizers and other pollutants present on surface of land absorb in soil due to rains and reach the water reservoirs and water courses. This addition of fertilizers and pollutants into water contaminates water by giving rise to eutrophication (upgrading of an ecosystem with chemical nutrients).

Industrial waste: 

Toxic chemicals present in industrial waste are Cadmium, lead, mercury. Moreover, many liquid effluents like acids, bases and poisonous compounds are also present in industrial waste. All these solid and liquid toxic substances pass into water bodies making it contaminated.

Water pollution effects:

Deadly diseases: 

Effects of water pollution could be catastrophic depending upon the nature of chemicals and pollutants present in it. Many water bodies near urban areas are contaminated due to domestic and industrial garbage dumped into it. Water is becoming contaminated and causing many health issues like Hepatitis A, Malaria, Cholera, dysentery, diarrhea and many other deadly diseases.

Effects on aquatic habitat:

Many human activities like industrial processes are causing increase in environmental temperature means thermal pollution. These processes may not contaminate the water directly but increase the water temperature which affects the aquatic habitat.

Ocean pollution:

Garbage, oil, petroleum and other toxic chemicals from ship generated discharges are becoming a source of ocean pollution. Ocean pollution is adversely affecting the sea life. Moreover, detergents used to clean water are also dangerous for sea animals.

How to control?

“Solution to pollution is dilution.”

Water pollution can be controlled by taking this principle into consideration. Moreover, there are various methods through which we can control water pollution. By using very specific and less stable chemicals in manufacturing process of insecticides could be useful in controlling water pollution caused by insecticides. There are many chemical treatments that could convert the sewage chemicals to into harmless substances. Thermal pollution of water could be avoided through cooling processes. There should be strict laws to treat the domestic and industrial waste before discharging into rivers or seas.  

An Advancment in Nitrogen Fixation by Endophyte

Now a days, a lot of new technologies have been implied to boost up N availability such as use of N fixing microorganisms or use of organic acids. But little attention has been given to the use of endophytes to enhance the N availability and nitrogen losses. Endophytes are micro-organisms that live within the tissues of a plant, without causing symptoms of disease. Endophytes can be used to develop bio-fertilizer that releases nitrogen slowly. Therefore, now researchers are focusing on the use of endophytic bacterial impregnation to prolong the availability of N in soil to replenish the pool of N to meet the plant requirements.

Controlled Release Fertilizers:  

Controlled-release fertilizers are being developed to improve nutrient use efficiency while reducing environmental hazards. It has also been reported that greater fruit yield was obtained using controlled-release fertilizers compared with water soluble fertilizers. These types of fertilizers can provide many benefits to agriculture, such as higher fertilizer use efficiency, reduced nutrient losses via fixation, leaching and denitrification and reduction of soil chemical processes that decrease the availability of nutrients. Therefore impregnation of commercial urea with endophytic bacteria could be effective to pro log the availability of nitrogen to plants in soil.

Experiments at Endophytic Efficiency:  

To investigate the efficiency of endophytic bacterial impregnated urea, pot trial was conducted at wire house of Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Two bacterial strains FD17 and PSJN were impregnated on urea. There were 8 treatments with 3 replications of each. The data regarding growth, yield and chemical parameters was obtained and analyzed statistically. Obtaining best results of T8 and preceding T5, it was concluded that endophytic bacterial impregnated urea showed maximum growth and yield as compared to other treatments. It was inferred that endophytes are helpful in prevention of nitrogen losses and enhance nitrogen use efficiency of plants and soil.

Results of study:  

Results of study indicated that wheat crop responded positively to the application of endophytic bacterial impregnated urea as compared to uncoated urea and control (no NPK was applied). Maximum plant heights were obtained from T5 (NPK + Seed inoculated both strains FD17 and PSJN) and T8 (Urea impregnated with strains FD17 and PSJN) Bacterial strain FD17 and PSJN coating on urea were found to be superior in most of the yield and growth parameters. Treatment (T8) having endophytic bacterial impregnated urea concentration improved the N concentration in shoot (2.61%) as compared to uncoated urea (T2) in which N concentration of shoot.  Application of endophytic bacterial impregnated urea improved the growth, yield and nitrogen use efficiency of crop. The maximum chlorophyll content was recorded in plants which received treatment T8 (PK + Urea impregnated with strains FD17 and PSJN) following T5 (NPK + Seed inoculated both strains FD17 and PSJN) and T7 (NPK + Seed inoculated both strains FD17 and PSJN) and these treatments produced 48, 47 and 45 spad value, respectively chlorophyll contents. Because endophytic bacterial impregnated urea converted it into more available form for a longer period as it slowed down the release of N. In T8 where endophytic bacterial impregnated urea with 100% recommended rate showed the highest percentage of nitrogen (as compare to uncoated urea) in grains. Overall experiment results suggested that coated urea as N source significantly increased most of the growth and yield parameters. Obtaining best results of T8 and preceding T5, it was concluded that endophytic bacterial impregnated urea showed maximum growth and yield as compared to other treatments. Endophytic bacterial impregnated urea has following benefits over un-impregnated urea:

•  Increased nutrients uptake and hence their use efficiency.
•  Performed better than uncoated N fertilizers.
•  Reduction in losses of N that resulted in more availability of N in soil.
•  Released the nutrients slowly and made it available throughout the growth period.
•  Reduced the fertilizer application rate due to higher uptake compared to uncoated urea.

CONCLUSION:

Keeping in view the above discussion, it can be concluded that use of slow release fertilizers more specifically endophytic bacterial coated fertilizers has significant effect on the growth and yield of crops and vegetables by controlling nutrient release rate and nutrient use efficiency.
By: Shoaib Aslam

Main Cause of Water Pollution

About 80 percent of ocean pollution in oceans enter our seas from the land sources. The human activity always has impact on the quality of our water. When farmers add fertilizer to crops in the fields, these chemicals gradually washed by water of rain into groundwater. Mostly the causes of waterpollution are absolutely stunning. Chemicals which are released by chimneys and factories may enter the atmosphere and then comes back to the earth in the form of rain, ultimately that water enters the rivers, lakes and seas and cause water pollution. That could be named as atmospheric deposition. Sewage is one of the main causes of water pollution.About 80 percent of ocean pollution in oceans enter our seas from the land sources. The human activity always has impact on the quality of our water. When farmers add fertilizer to crops in the fields, these chemicals gradually washed by water of rain into groundwater. Mostly the causes of water pollution are absolutely stunning. Chemicals which are released by chimneys and factories may enter the atmosphere and then comes back to the earth in the form of rain, ultimately that water enters the rivers, lakes and seas and cause water pollution. That could be named as atmospheric deposition. Sewage is one of the main causes of water pollution.

Sewage Pollution:

From theoretical point of view, sewage is a totally natural entity that should be decomposed harmlessly in the environment in which 90% of sewage is water. Practically, the sewage is containing all sorts of chemicals, plastic, and other wastes which is flush down in the toilets. Whenever people get ill due to viruses, the sewage they produce contains the viruses that go into the environment. It may be possible to control illnesses like typhoid, hepatitis and cholera from sea and river water.

Effects of Sewage Pollution:

This blue planet contains billions of people which dispose sewage waste is a main problem. In 2013, World Health Organization (WHO) surveyed that 780 million people are not having access to pure drinking water and while 2.5 billion people do not have proper sanitation (hygienic toilet facilities) Comparatively, very little progress has been made on improvement of global sanitation in the last few years, whilst there have been great improvements in getting access to clean and pure water. Sewage disposal affects people's immediate environments and leads to water-related illnesses for example diarrhea which kills about 760,000 children below five every year. Back in 2002, the World Health Organization estimated that water-related diseases could kill as many as 135 million people by 2020. Most people flushed toilets that take sewage waste hygienically away from their houses in developed nations.

Domestic Sewage Effluents:

However, the sewage disposal problem does not quit there. When toilet is flushed, the waste goes somewhere and even after it leaves the works of sewage treatment, there is still waste of disposal. It may be possible that sewage waste is pumped untreated into the water of sea. Till 1990s, in New York, about 5 million tons of sewage dumped by barge every year. In 2002, the UK Government's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), sewers from Britain collected about 11 billion liters of waste water every day and some portion was still pumped untreated into the sea water via long pipes. Once in late 1990’s, the New River that runs the border from Mexico to California carried with 76-95 million liters of sewage every day. In US-Mexico border, a new waste water plant completed in 2007 and solved the problem. Unluckily the practice of dumping sewage into the sea continues even in some of the rich countries. In 2012, it was discovered that the little island of Guernsey which lies between France and Britain, has planned to continual dumping of 16,000 tons of sewage into the sea water every day.

What are the effects of water pollution?

Many people have belief that pollution is an inescapable consequence of human activities. It is argued that that if we desire to run factories, some degree of pollution is surely certain to result. More precisely, pollution is a necessary evil. The people must put up with if they want to proceed. However, not everybody agrees with this opinion. The main reason people have got up to the serious problem of pollution is that it costly which undermine any economic advantages that come by pollution. Pollution matters since it harms our environment. The environment is not something separate and distant and from our lives. It's not a pretty shoreline hundreds of miles from our homes or a wilderness landscape that we see only on TV. The environment is everything that surrounds us that gives us life and health. Spoiling the environment finally minimizes the quality of our lives and, most selfishly, this is the reason why pollution should be important to all of us.

Coated Fertilizers And Agriculture

Many technologies have been implied to boost up phosphorus (P) solubility such as use of P solubilizing microorganisms or use of organic acids. But little attention has been given to the use of organic polymer to enhance the P availability. Organic polymer can be used to develop phosphatic fertilizer that releases phosphorus (P) slowly. The organic polymer (complex organic compounds) absorbs water more efficiently and keeps the P in available form. The organic polymer can hold water many times of its weight and prolong the availability of P to plant roots. Phosphatic fertilizers with organic polymers are usually termed as slow releasing fertilizer because these fertilizers provide P to plants at slower rate but regularly. Therefore, now researchers are focusing on the use of polymer for DAP (diammonium phosphate) coating to prolong the availability of P in soil to replenish the pool of P to meet the plant requirements. Controlled-release fertilizers are being developed to improve nutrient use efficiency while reducing environmental hazards.

Controlled-Release Fertilizers:

It has also been reported that greater fruit yield was obtained using controlled-release fertilizers compared with water soluble fertilizers. This type of fertilizer can provide many benefits to agriculture, such as higher fertilizer use efficiency, reduced nutrient losses via fixation, leaching and denitrification and reduction of soil chemical processes that decrease the availability of nutrients, such as the fixation of P. Therefore coating of commercial DAP with organic polymer could be effective to prolog the availability of phosphorus to plants in soil.

Experiment at Coated DAP:  

To investigate the efficiency of polymer coated DAP, field trial was conducted at research area of Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Different rates of organic polymer coated DAP (100, 75 and 50%) were applied in comparison with uncoated DAP. Data regarding plant height, number of tillers m-2, 1000-grain weight, grain yield and total grain yield were collected. Results of the study obtained after statistical analysis are summarized as under.

Results for Coated DAP:

Results of study indicated that wheat crop responded positively to the application of polymer coated DAP as compared to uncoated DAP and control (no P was applied). Application of polymer coated DAP improved the growth, yield and nutritional aspects of crop. 100% polymer coated DAP was found to be superior in most of the yield and growth parameters. Because polymer coating on DAP converted it into more available form for a longer period as it slowed down the release of P. Overall experiment results suggested that polymer coated DAP as P source significantly increased most of the growth and yield parameters. Polymer coated DAP has following benefits over uncoated DAP.

Polymer coated DAP: 

• Increased nutrients uptake and hence their use efficiency.
• Performed better than uncoated DAP.
• Reduction in soil fixation of P that resulted in more availability of P in soil.
• Released the nutrients slowly and made it available throughout the growth period.
• Reduced the fertilizer application rate due to higher uptake compared to uncoated.

References:

1. Murphy, L and L. Sanders. 2007. Improving N and P efficiency with polymer technology.         Ind. CCA Conf. Pro. 1-13.
2. NFDC. 1997. Fertilizer Recommendations for Crops. pp. 33-46. In. “Fertilizer Recommendations in Pakistan (a pocket guide for extension workers)”. National Fertilizer Development Center, Islamabad, Pakistan

By : Shoaib Aslam