In Egypt, the total area of agricultural land is 8 million feddans (1 feddan = 0.42 ha), which is 3.8 % of the entire territory of the country (Mostafa et al., 2005). One of the main obstacles to agricultural production in Egypt is soil salinization. Therefore, land reclamation, especially biological, saline soils in arid climate conditions is highly relevant.
Application of organic wastes as soil amendments such as the Brewers' spent grain, the 92 % of the total by-products generated and compost with bacteria Azospirillum brasilense inoculation. In this work, treatments of 1 % (S1) and 2 % (S2) of spent grains, 1 % (C1) and 2 % (C2) of compost and mix of both sources (C1S1), Azospirillum (A1) inoculation 5 % of soil weight, Azospirillum with C1 (A1C1) and Azospirillum with S1 (A1S1) were used and compared to the control and aim of this study was used as a biofertilizer with organic wastes in soil for enhancement chemical, biological properties, reducing soil salinity and was proved to improve soil fertility.
The saline soil was previously incubated with treatments at 65 % of saturation capacity for five months under laboratory conditions on 28° C. The most relevant chemical and biological parameters were analysed every month for period five months. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were measured every week in the first month and then every 15 days for five months. The addition of Azospirillum with organic wastes increased the rate of decomposition of organic matter and this was clearly in the rate of CO2 emission.
After incubation period, significant variation was observed in the CO2 emission among all treatments in the order of A1> S2 > C2> A1S1 > C1S1 >A1C1 > C2 > control. The highest records of CO2 emission and decomposition rate were in A1, S2 and C2. Soil organic carbon was increased by using spent grains as organic wastes. In addition, the differences in dehydrogenase and nitrogenise enzymes activity were highly significant in A1, S2 and A1S1 when combined with different levels of organic wastes with Azospirillum in saline soil.
Humic acid increased significantly along the treatments with the highest values in A1S1and S2. Soil pH decreased along the treatments and the lowest pH was in S2 and A1S1. Exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) decreased by 86 % and 82 % in A1S1 and S2 comparing to control after five months of incubation. Total nitrogen (TN) and available phosphorus (P) varied significantly among all treatments and A1S1, S2, A1 and C1S1 treatments increased 81.7, 70.5, 68.4 and 59.5 folds in TN and 12, 8, 11 and 8.3 folds in P, respectively relating to initial condition. Available K showed the highest values in S2. Soil micronutrients increased significantly along all treatments with the highest values in A1S1.
The results indicated that the decomposition of organic wastes and CO2 emission is a microbiological process, which release TN, P, K and dehydrogenase enzyme. It is also that addition of Azospirillum inoculation with organic wastes to saline soil positively affected the chemical and biological parameters in the saline soil incubation. Finally, addition Azospirillum with spent grains is highly recommended in enhancement of the saline soil properties.
Работа представлена д.с.-х.н., проф. А.И. Поповым и проф. Мохамедом Рашадом (Mohamed Rashad).