Role of Waste Water and Fly Ash in Productivity of Chickpea

Rapid industrialization in India, during the last few decades, in the form of chemical, dairy, pharmaceutical, mining, distillery, fertilizer, paper and pulp, petrochemical, textile, sugar, machinery, vehicle, food processing, tannery factories in addition to coal fired thermal power plants, has burdened the land and resulted in deterioration of air, soil as well as water. Thus, the utilization of treated wastewater as liquid fertilizer makes sense because (i) it replaces and conserves mineral fertilizer (ii) improves soil structure and (iii) an alternative disposal method could be environmentally damaging. Whereas fly ash from coal based thermal power plant stations is successfully utilized for the growth of variety of vegetables, millets, cereals and trees when amended with soil. In view of the known beneficial role of wastewater and of fly ash in crop productivity and for helping the disposal management of the two waste products and keeping the importance of pulses in mind the present author proposed a hypothesis that chickpea could be grown profitably using fly ash and waste water. This book is meant for post graduate students and the students pursuing higher studies.