Effect of Domestic Treated Wastewater use on Three Varieties of Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) under Semi Arid Conditions

Authors: El Youssfi L., Choukr-Allah R., Zaafrani M., Mediouni T., Sarr F, Hirich A.

Abstract:

An experiment was implemented in a filed in the south of Morocco to evaluate the effects of domestic treated wastewater use for irrigation of amaranth crop under semi-arid conditions. Three varieties (A0020, A0057 & A211) were tested and irrigated using domestic treated wastewater EC1 (0,92 dS/m) as control, EC3 (3dS/m) and EC6 (6dS/m) obtained by adding sea water. In term of growth, an increase of the EC level of applied irrigation water reduced significantly the plant-s height, leaf area, fresh and dry weight measured at vegetative, flowering and maturity stage for all varieties. Even with the application of the EC6, yields were relatively higher in comparison with the once obtained in normal cultivation conditions. A significant accumulation of nitrate, chloride and sodium in soil layers during the crop cycle was noted. The use of treated waste water for its irrigation is proved to be possible. The variety A211 had showed to be less sensitive to salinity stress and it could be more promising its introduction to study area.

Keywords: Amaranth, salinity, semi-arid, treated waste water.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1058299

References:

[1] Allemann J, Van Den Heever E, and Viljoen J (1996). Evaluation of Amaranthus as possible vegetable crop. Appl. Plant Sci. 10, 1-4.
[2] Bray S and Reid DM (2002). Effects of salinity and CO2 enrichment on the growth and anatomy of the second trifoliate leaf of Phaseolus vulgaris. Can. J.Bot., 80:349-359.
[3] Cunningham AB, Dejager PJ and Hansen LCB (1992). The ingigenous plant use programme. Foundation for Research Development, Pretoria.
[4] Hsiao TG (1973). Plant responses to water stress. Ann.Rev.Plant Physiology.
[5] Oron G, Gillerman A, Bick Y, Mnaor N, Buriakovsky and Hagin J (2007). Advanced low quality waters treatment for unrestricted use purposes: Imminent challenges. Desalination, 213: 189-198.
[6] Sipala S, Mancini G and Vagliasindi FGA (2003). Development of webbased tool for the calculation of costs of different wastewater treatment and reuse scenarios. Wat. Sci. Tech., 3: 89-96.