Ezzat Momamad Abd El Lateef 
, Mahmoud Alaa Farrag, Mostafa El-Sayed Abd El-Salam, Jeremy Hall , Mohamed Negm and Abd elazeem Kottob Mohamed Salem
1-National Research Centre, Agric. Div., Dokki, Giza, 33 El-Behooth St., Giza, Egypt
2-Independent sludge and water consultant, Medmenham, Marlow, SL7 2HD, UK
3-Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams Univ., Public Works Dept., Ahmad Osman Street, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt
Article History: Received: Sept 01, 2020 / Revised: Nov 29, 2020/ Accepted: Dec 02, 2020
Abstract
To evaluate the agronomic and economic value of wastewater reuse in desert soil, demonstration field trials were conducted in desert (virgin) soil to evaluate the effect of irrigation with secondary treated wastewater from El Berka wastewater treatment plant on food and non-food crops. The results showed that considerable amounts of macronutrients (NPK) were applied to the grown crops through the treated wastewater irrigation: N (36–176%), P2O5 (72–360%), and K2O (99–357%) of the recommended fertilizer rates according to the crop. Crop yields showed significant differences when treated wastewater was combined with the recommended fertilizer rates for most crops. Maize, cotton, sunflower, and wheat seemed to be better cropped for irrigation with secondary treated wastewater. The calculation of fertilizer value in EGP based on market prices in Egypt showed that nitrogen addition value ranged between 315 and 1178 EGP, P between194 and 1128 while K ranged between 585 and 2398 EGP according to the crop and the period of wastewater irrigation. The Economic value of fertilizer inputs applied to the field crops indicates that the total NPK value ranged between 1049 and 4303 LE. It could be concluded from this study that treated wastewater has substantial agronomic value for most of the field crops studied. Wastewater irrigation could save partial NPK crop requirements and needs fertilizer compensation. The advantage of field crop irrigation with treated wastewater is evident from the agronomic and economic scene. A crucial conclusion of this work is that it serves in wastewater pricing plans in the new lands in Egypt and similar countries.
Keywords Irrigation, Desert soil, Wastewater reuse, Macronutrients, Economic value, Treated wastewater pricing
How to cite this article
Abd El Lateef, E. M., Farrag, M.A., M.S. El-Salam., Hall, J., Negm M. & Salem, A.K.M. (2020). ‘The agronomic and economic value of treated wastewater reuse for some field crops in desert soil’, Science Archives,1(3),142-149.
Crossref DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.47587/SA.2020.1311
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This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.
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