Effect of Treated Wastewater from Anaerobic Digester Coupled with Anaerobic Baffled Reactor as Fertigation on Soil Nutrient Residues, Growth and Yield of Maize Plants

Abstract

Water scarcity, wastewater management and growing food demand associated with global population increase, are among the drivers cited for water reuse in agriculture. The current study intends to contribute on the influence of treated wastewater from the anaerobic digester coupled with anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) as a fertigation on soil nutrient residues, growth and yield attributes of maize plants by using surface drip irrigation system to apply the treated wastewater. The experiment consisted of experimental plots irrigated with treated wastewater and control plots irrigated with tap water; all with three replications. The treated wastewater was lightly alkaline with pH of 7.8±0.2 and high concentration of nutrients than tap water, but were within the acceptable levels. Fertigation with treated wastewater improved soil fertility evidenced by significant improvement (P≤0.05) in plant height, leaf area Index (LAI) and maize yield. Plant height was 1.5 times taller and LAI was about 2.5 times more in treatment than in control plots. Yield attributes in experimental plots including number of grains per cob, (97±11.3); weight of grains per cob, (80.7±7.9 g); mass of 100 grains, (35.0±3.5 g), and grain yield, (745.8±62.9 Kg/ha) were significantly higher (P≤0.05) compared to their counterpart control plots. The grain yield in experimental plots was about 37% higher than the yield in control plots. Therefore, fertigation with treated wastewater from the anaerobic digester coupled with ABR improves maize yield and is advisable in areas with water scarcity.