International Journal of Agricultural

Science and Research (IJASR)

ISSN(P): 2250-0057; ISSN(E): 2321-0087
Vol. 6, Issue 3, Jun 2016, 495-502
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

EFFICIENCY OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC AMENDMENTS

IN RECLAIMING CALCAREOUS SODIC SOILS: CHANGES
IN PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES
PRAMILA PUSHPARAJ & CHITDESHWARI THIYAGARAJAN
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
ABSTRACT
An incubation experiment was conducted to examine the reclamation efficiency of inorganic and organic
amendments in calcareous sodic soil. The treatments structure comprised of no amended control, inorganic amendments
(gypsum, elemental sulphur, calcium chloride, ferrous sulphate) and organic manures (poultry manure, green leaf
manure, farm yard manure, pressmud and vermicompost). Calculated quantities of inorganic and organic amendments
were added to calcareous sodic soil, mixed well, moistened to field capacity and incubated for 60 days. Destructive
sampling was carried out at 15 days interval and assessed for the changes in various soil physico-chemical properties.
Results showed that addition of gypsum, calcium chloride and poultry manure increased the soil electrical conductivity.
Higher pH reduction was noted with elemental sulphur followed by gypsum and vermicompost. Soil Na+ was significantly

Inclusion of gypsum and elemental sulphur showed higher reclamation efficiency by reducing the pH and ESP of the
sodic soil. Among the organic amendments, pressmud and vermicompost performed better in reclaiming calcareous sodic
soils.
KEYWORDS: Sodic Soil, Organic and Inorganic Amendments, Reclamation Efficiency

Original Article

decreased with the addition of gypsum followed by pressmud and elemental sulphur applied as per gypsum requirement.

Received: May 06, 2016; Accepted: May 27, 2016; Published: Jun 10, 2016; Paper Id.: IJASRJUN2016061

INTRODUCTION
Soil sodicity is the major environmental concern leading to land degradation in irrigated areas of arid and
semi-arid regions across the world (Mahmoodabadi et al., 2013). Accumulation of Na+ in the upper soil profile in
the arid and semiarid regions was associated with the lesser availability of water which is insufficient for leaching.
At global level, 810 million ha of soils are salt affected and out of which 434 million ha was affected by sodicity. In
India 6.73 million ha of land is affected by salinity and alkalinity of which sodic soils accounts for 3.77 million ha
(Qadir et al., 2006). These soils are characterized by higher accumulation of Na+ in exchangeable complex which
results in many soil physical and chemical constraints including poor soil structure and hydraulic conductivity,
decreased soil permeability, available water holding capacity and infiltration rates through swelling and dispersion
of clays as well as slaking of soil aggregates (Yu et al., 2010).
Successful amelioration of a sodic soil involves application of suitable Ca2+ source to displace the excess
Na+ on the clay complexes which promotes soil flocculation thus improves the soil physical environment. Gypsum
is widely accepted as a prime source of Ca2+ to reclaim sodic soils and its use has been long studied as part of the
most important remediation strategy in sodic soil. However, due to increased costs of chemical amendments and

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Pramila Pushparaj & Chitdeshwari Thiyagarajan

recurrent sodicity issues, various organic amendments were also used to supplement Ca2+ as well as organic manure to
improve the soil properties (Celis et al., 2013). Use of organic amendments has been well proved as alternative sources for
reclaiming salt affected soils however their relative significance in reclaiming sodic soils including soil structure
stabilization, hydraulic conductivity and Na+ leaching needs to be studied in detail. Hence the present investigation was
planned to evaluate the efficiency of various chemical and organic amendments as source of Ca2+ as well as organic
manure to reclaim/improve the productivity of calcareous sodic soils.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An incubation experiment was conducted with various organic and inorganic amendments in a calcareous sodic
soil. Bulk sodic soil was collected from the farmers field at Trichy district of Tamil Nadu, air dried, pulverized, passed
through 2 mm sieve, thoroughly mixed and analysed for selected soil properties as per standard procedure (Table 1).
Polyethylene containers about 9 cm height and 7 cm diameter in size were filled with 100 grams of processed calcareous
sodic soil. Nine amendments including four chemcial amendments (Gypsum, Elemental sulphur, Calcium chloride, Ferrous
sulphate) and five organic manures (Poultry manure, Green leaf manure, Farm yard manure, Pressmud and Vermicompost)
with one check as control without amendments were tested for their reclamation efficiency. All inorganic amendments and
Pressmud were added based on Ca2+ equivalent basis as per gypsum requirement of the calcareous sodic soil and other
organic manures were added as per blanket recommendation. Calculated quantity of amendments were added to the soil,
mixed thoroughly, moistened to field capacity with de-ionized water and maintained throughout the study period by
adjusting the moisture on weight basis at 25C. All the treatments were replicated thrice for each sampling interval to
facilitate destructive sampling in a factorially completely randomized block design. Destructive soil sampling done at 1, 3,
7, 15, 30, 45 and 60 days after incubation were analysed for various chemical and physiochemical properties of the soil.
The reclamation efficiency of amendments was computed for selecting the best ameliorants for reclaiming sodic soils.

RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

Characteristics of Soil and Amendments
The experimental soil is clay loam in texture with alkaline soil reaction (pHe= 9.10), non saline (2.0 dSm-1) and
medium in organic carbon content (4.15 g kg-1). Soil is highly calcareous with a free CaCO3 of 17.8% and an ESP of 34.1
%. The organic manures used in this experiment had neutral in pH except poultry manure it has a pH value of 8.74. The EC
of the manure are (FYM 0.48, GLM 0.98, pressmud 1.56, vermicompost 1.28 and poultry manure 8.79 dSm-1) poultry
manure has high salinity. Organic carbon was high in pressmud 32.5 g kg-1 followed by vermicompost (28.6 g kg-1)>
poultry manure (25.6 g kg-1)> FYM (22.1 g kg-1) and GLM (20.4 g kg-1). Nitrogen content was high in GLM (2.10%) and
poultry manure (2.68%). Phosphors content of the manures was FYM 0.23%, GLM 0.58%, pressmud 0.35%,
vermicompost 0.26% and poultry manure 2.24%. All the organic manure has sodium content below 0.30 per cent. the
range of calcium, content was followed as order of pressmud (2.85%)> vermicompost (2.71%)> FYM (2.10%)> GLM
(0.94% and poultry manure (0.75%). Pressmud and vermicompost was recorded higher magnesium content
(1.40 and 1.32 %).
Changes in Physiochemical Properties
Soil pH significantly decreased with the addition of various organic and inorganic amendments except poultry
manure which resulted in a marked increase in pH after three days (Figure 1). Soil reaction declined with time and the

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Efficiency of Organic and Inorganic Amendments in Reclaiming

Calcareous Sodic Soils: Changes in Physicochemical Properties

497

magnitude of reduction increased with the advancement of incubation time. Out of the nine amendments, Elemental
sulphur and gypsum application was found equally effective in reducing the soil pH to a greater extent followed by CaCl2
and FeSO4. Similarly inclusion of vermicompost at 5 t ha-1 and pressmud at Ca2+ equivalent basis significantly altered the
soil pH followed by FYM > GLM > Poultry manure. Limited reduction in pH was (> 5 per cent) by most of the
amendments was mainly attributed to the high pH buffering capacity that is associated with the calcareousness and clay
content of the soil (Xu et al., 2006, Lakhdar et al., 2010Mahdy, 2011).
Electrical conductivity of the soil also decreased with incubation time but the extent of reduction varied with
amendments and was not marked as that of pH. Generally soil EC was reduced slightly from the initial value with
amendments but addition of CaCl2 and poultry manure increased the soil EC by two fold when compared to the control.
Application of gypsum also increased the EC slightly up to 3rd days after incubation but beyond that there is no significant
increase (Figure 2). The higher order of reduction in soil EC was: Elemental sulphur > Gypsum > FeSO4 > CaCl2 with
inorganic amendments and with organics it was: vermicompost > Pressmud > GLM > FYM > Poultry manure. Similar
reduction in EC by the application of inorganic and organic amendments was reported by Jalali and Ranjbar (2009) which
could be ascribed to an increase in Ca2+ status in the soil solution results in replacement of Na+ at the exchange sites which
leads to subsequent reduction soil salinity (Wang et al., 2014).
Exchangeable Cations
Exchangeable Na+ content was apparently reduced from the 1st day after incubation and tends to decreased
(18.8 to 9.40 Meq 100g-1) with increasing time period. Addition of gypsum effectively reduced the exchangeable Na+
content by 42.5 per cent which was closely followed by the addition of Pressmud (40.5%), elemental sulphur (39.4%) and
Vermicompost (38.9%). With respect to exchangeable Ca2+ content was get increased from the first day after incubation till
45th day after incubation beyond that there is a decline in the Ca2+ content of the soil. Higher exchangeable Ca2+ in the
exchangeable site was observed due to gypsum application which accounts for 22.8 per cent over control. Next to this,
application of pressmud (19.4%) and vermicompost (17%) registered higher Ca2+ availability. Sodicity declined due to
sufficient supply of favourable cations, in particularly Ca2+ thus reducing the concentration of Na+ on the exchange
complex (Srinivasan et al., 2010; Aydemir and Sunger, 2012).
The availability of exchangeable K+ and Mg2+ increases with the application of amendments over the control.
Exchangeable K+ status was high with the application of organic amendments and higher K+ was noted with pressmud
addition (6.24 Meq 100 g-1) followed by vermicompost (5.89 Meq 100g-1) and Farm yard manure (5.52 Meq 100g-1).
The ability of organic amendments to make positive impact on the soil physical and chemical properties mainly associated
with the reduction in soil sodicity which depends on the cation concentrations in the organic materials (Marx et al., 2002).
Bhattacharyya et al., (2007) Wong et al., (2009) found relatively high levels of available K in soils treated with organic
amendments and the difference among all amendments could be attributed to their chemical compositions. The incubation
time and K+ content were positively correlated. Magnesium content was increased up to 45th day in the soils were
incubated with inorganic amendments beyond that there is reduction of Mg2+ was noted but there is increasing trend was
noted with the organic amendments throughout the period of incubation. Magnesium content of the soil was higher with
the application of organic manures such as pressmud (15.3 Meq 100g-1) and vermicompost (14.9 Meq 100g-1) than in the
inorganic amendments like Elemental sulphur (15.0 Meq 100g-1) and ferrous sulphate (14.0 Meq 100g-1). Decomposition
of organic manures would probably increased the amount of Ca2+ derived from CaCO3 due to the formation of organic
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Pramila Pushparaj & Chitdeshwari Thiyagarajan

acids (Wong et al., 2009) thus shows better reclamation.

Soil Organic Carbon
Soil organic carbon (SOC) was significantly increased with time and maximum soil organic carbon was noted
with the application of vermicompost (4.90 g kg-1) followed by pressmud (4.90 g kg-1) and FYM (4.79 g kg-1). It increased
with incubation time up to 45 days and declined there after (Table 3). Incorporation of organic amendments in the soil
recorded higher SOC initially due to carbon supply but declined later due to microbial decomposition (Jensen et al., 2005).
As compared to the inorganic amendments addition of organic amendments recorded higher soil organic carbon due to the
carbonaceous nature of organic amendments. Although the same mass of organic matter was added to the soils, the
resulting increase in soil organic carbon differed with the source. This is consistent with Tejada et al. (2006), who reported
that the effect of organic amendments on soil organic carbon depended on the chemical nature of the amendments and
likely to affect the rate at which it is decomposed by the microbial community (Hahn and Quideau, 2013).
ESP
The data on exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) of the soil after incorporation of various amendments at
different time interval was presented in Table 3. ESP of soil decreased during the due course of time. When compared to
control all the amendments showed marked reduction in ESP level of the soil. ESP percentage deceases with increasing
days of incubation from the first day mean reduction of ESP was 8.21 to 54.5 per cent reduction at the end of incubation
period. The higher ESP reduction was noted with gypsum application (18.7%) followed by elemental sulphur (19.3%).
Among the various organic manures pressmud lowers the ESP significantly to an extent of 18.0 % followed by
vermicompost (19.0%). Application of amendments encourages granulation, increases cation exchange capacity (CEC) and
is responsible for the release of Ca2+, Mg2+ and K+ (Brady and Weil, 2005) which might have decreased the soil sodicity by
effective replacement of Na+ with Ca2+ and Mg2+. Being a divalent cation Mg2+ can also replace the Na+ from the soil
exchangeable site (Gharaibeh et al., 2010, 2014).

CONCLUSIONS
An incubation experiment conducted to evaluate the efficiency of various organic and inorganic amendments
showed that, all amendments decreased the exchangeable Na+ and ESP of the sodic soil compared to control. Application
of gypsum and elemental sulphur showed higher reclamation process and resulted in higher reduction in sodicity. With
regards to organic amendments, pressmud and vermicompost performed better in reducing the sodicity due to their higher
Ca2+ supply besides improving the soil physico chemical properties. However further studies are needed to assess the
effects of organic amendments on soil microbial community and enzymatic activities which contributes to the effective
reclamation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thankful to Department of biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology for
providing financial assistance to this investigation.
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Efficiency of Organic and Inorganic Amendments in Reclaiming

Calcareous Sodic Soils: Changes in Physicochemical Properties
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material additions: a laboratory incubation. Applied Soil Ecology, 41, 2940.
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APPENDICIES
Table 1: Selected Properties of the Experimental Soil
Parameters
pHe
ECe (dSm-1)
Soil texture
Soil bulk density (Mg m-3)
Particle density (Mgm-3)
Exchangeable Na (Meq/100g soil)
Exchangeable K (Meq/100g soil)
Exchangeable Ca (Meq/100g soil)
Exchangeable Mg (Meq/100g soil)
Organic Carbon (g kg-1)
Free CaCO3 (%)
ESP (%)
Gypsum requirement (t ha-1)

Sodic soil
9.10
2.00
Clay loam
1.60
2.98
19.5
3.12
25.7
8.80
4.15
17.8
34.1
18.5

Table 2: Selected Properties of the Organic Manures

Parameters
pH
Electrical conductivity (dSm-1)
Organic Carbon (g kg-1)
Total nutrient content (%)
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Potassium
Sodium
Calcium
Magnesium

7.15
0.48
22.1

7.12
0.98
20.4

7.46
1.56
32.5

7.40
1.28
28.6

Poultry
manure
8.74
8.79
25.6

0.57
0.23
0.53
0.21
2.10
0.20

2.10
0.58
1.23
0.12
0.94
0.32

1.02
0.35
0.42
0.14
2.85
1.40

0.86
0.26
0.54
0.15
2.71
1.32

2.68
2.24
1.21
0.34
0.75
0.46

FYM

a Inorganic Amendments

GLM

Pressmud

Vermicompost

b Organic Amendments

Figure 1: Effect of Inorganic and Organic Amendments on the Changes in Soil pH

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.7987

NAAS Rating: 3.53

Efficiency of Organic and Inorganic Amendments in Reclaiming

Calcareous Sodic Soils: Changes in Physicochemical Properties

a. Inorganic Amendments

501

b. Organic Amendments

Figure 2: Effect of Inorganic and Organic Amendments on the Changes in Soil EC (Dsm-1)

a. Inorganic Amendments

b. Organic Amendments

Figure 3: Effect of Inorganic and Organic Amendments on the Changes in Soil Exchangeable Sodium Content

a. Inorganic Amendments

b. Organic Amendments

Figure 4: Effect of Inorganic and Organic Amendments on the Changes In Soil Exchangeable Calcium Content

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Pramila Pushparaj & Chitdeshwari Thiyagarajan

Table 2: Effect of Inorganic and Organic Amendments on Soil Exchangeable Potassium and Magnesium
Potassium (Meq 100g soil-1)

Amendments /
Time (Days)

Magnesium (Meq 100g soil-1)

15

30

45

60

Control

3.11

3.30

3.22

3.15

3.25

3.40

3.50

Gypsum

3.37

3.22

3.59

3.72

3.29

3.81

Elemental
Sulphur

3.45

3.35

3.50

3.68

3.48

Calcium chloride

2.96

3.26

3.75

4.07

Ferrous sulphate

3.01

3.36

3.59

3.65

Grand
Mean

Grand
Mean

15

30

45

60

3.28

8.8

9.7

10.2

10.4

10.6

10.9

8.9

9.90

3.85

3.55

9.0

10.7

11.5

12.9

13.3

12.9

11.8

11.7

3.54

3.56

3.51

11.6

13.5

14.5

15.4

17.2

17.0

15.9

15.0

4.17

3.36

3.75

3.62

10.0

11.8

12.7

13.4

14.5

14.8

14.0

13.0

3.68

3.95

3.67

3.56

10.4

12.9

14.2

16.0

16.5

14.8

13.1

14.0

Poultry manure

3.90

4.29

4.38

5.77

6.11

5.72

6.45

5.23

10.6

12.2

13.4

13.9

14.5

14.9

16.8

13.8

GLM

3.39

4.23

4.65

5.72

6.36

6.70

6.73

5.40

10.9

11.6

12.3

13.2

13.9

13.6

14.2

12.8

FYM

3.20

4.30

5.05

5.81

6.21

7.07

6.98

5.52

11.2

12.6

13.2

13.5

13.8

15.3

16.5

13.7

Vermicompost

3.67

4.50

5.25

6.13

6.75

7.27

7.66

5.89

12.3

13.6

14.3

14.7

15.6

16.2

17.7

14.9

Pressmud

3.39

5.38

5.46

6.53

7.06

7.82

8.04

6.24

12.8

13.4

14.4

15.2

16.1

17.2

18.1

15.3

Mean

3.35

3.92

4.24

4.82

5.04

5.26

5.42

4.58

10.8

12.2

13.1

13.9

14.6

14.8

14.7

13.4

AxD

AxD

SEd

0.18

0.15

0.48

0.41

0.34

1.09

CD(P=0.05)

0.36

0.30

0.95

0.81

0.68

2.16

Table 3: Effect of Inorganic and Organic Amendments on Changes of Soil Organic Carbon and ESP

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.7987

NAAS Rating: 3.53