Poultry Manure-Derived Biochar As A Soil Amendment and Fertilizer for Sandy Soils under Arid Conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Soil department, Faculty of agriculture, Minia university, El-Minia, Egypt

2 Soil department, faculty of agriculture, Minia University

Abstract

Newly reclaimed sandy soils under arid conditions are characterized by poor physical and biochemical properties specially, rapid organic matter decomposition. Field experiment was developed to investigate the feasibility of using poultry manure and its derived biochar integrated with different levels of N fertilizer as a soil amendment and fertilizer for newly reclaimed sandy soils in Western Desert of El-Minia Governorate, Egypt. Results showed that application of poultry manure (PM) or its derived biochar (PMB) in combination with inorganic N levels had caused significant changes on a range of the investigated sandy soil biochemical properties including pH, EC, mineral N, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic N (DON) and quotient DOC/DON. Overall, the impact of PMB on soil physical properties was detected to be superior than the impact of PM, regardless the inorganic N levels. In addition, the obtained results showed that poultry manure (PM) and its derived biochar (PMB) application had the capacity to stimulate vigorous growth and production levels of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.), and to increase soil organic matter content and N-uptake and recovery compared to control. The interesting feature of this research is that PMD increased treated sandy soil organic carbon (SOC) 1.75 times more than soil treated with PM itself at the end of cropping seasons. It could be concluded that biochar derived from organic wastes considers as a source of stabile carbon and could be very hopeful choice for substituting easily decomposable organic manures under arid conditions.
The interesting feature of this research is that PMD increased treated sandy soil organic carbon (SOC) 1.75 times more than soil treated with PM itself at the end of cropping seasons. It could be concluded that biochar derived from organic wastes considers as a source of stabile carbon and could be very hopeful choice for substituting easily decomposable organic manures under arid conditions.

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