Sidra Sohail

By Sidra Sohail, Aqarab Husnain Gondal, Qammar Farooq, Laaraib Tayyaba, Dua E. Zainab, Iftikhar Ali Ahmad, Asma Zafar, Shahar Yar Khosa and Mohammad Usama

The most pressing concern in the world since independence has been producing enough food to feed an expanding population. The mix of high-yielding production techniques has helped the globe to generate a food surplus while also raising worries about soil health and environmental pollution. Though, scientists and policy makers are rethinking agricultural systems that rely heavily on biological inputs. Organic farming can provide high-quality food without compromising the health of the land or the environment; nevertheless, it is unclear if large-scale organic farming would be able to feed world’s vast population. Adoption of this emerging approach “organic vegetable farming” plays a vital role in development of agricultural sustainability through avoiding indiscriminate use of synthetic chemicals. There are numerous organic sources for organic vegetable farming but various type of composts (especially vermi-compost) and biochar are most famous among all other organic sources as they improved soil healthy and vegetables productions through improving soil physico-chemical and biological attributes. In addition, demand and prices of organically produced vegetables are much higher in market and evidence showed that organically grown vegetables are enriched with nutrients and safe for consumption because of their less exposure with residues of in-organic pesticides.

Part of the book: Vegetable Crops

By Sidra Sohail, Muhammad Fraz Ali, Usman Zulfiqar, Saddam Hussain and Shaharyar Khosa

Sewage sludge is now widely used for production of crops throughout the world. Utilizing the sewage sludge for crop production has various advantages such as nutrient recycling, reducing the need for mineral fertilizer, increasing organic matter amount in soils, and improving physical properties of soil. A large amount of sludge is generated during the sewage treatment process, and it is disposed off on land in the form of fertilizer or soil conditioner. In this, heavy metals are usually in greater concentration than in soil, which is one of the main problems which restricts its utilization as a fertilizer. Nitrate leaching and heavy fertilization cause serious problems for the groundwater and this issue of nitrate leaching is usually neglected. Continuous used of swage sludge cause contamination of soil and water and affects plant growth and soil microorganisms. In this chapter, we have focused on i) various factors which affects nitrate leaching in soil, it includes soil texture, rate of fertilization, season and climate, ii) strategies to reduce nitrate leaching and iii) nitrogen conversion mechanism in sewage sludge.

Part of the book: Soil Contamination