Effect of treated Domestic Sewage Water Irrigation on Yield and Uptake of heavy metals in cotton - A Case Study from Nagpur City, Central India

Availability of irrigation water is a crucial problem especially in arid and semi arid regions; and hence, application of wastewater in agriculture in such regions seems to be an attractive preposition. Increasing need for water has resulted in the use of treated sewage water application for agriculture. In the present study, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) crop was irrigated with treated sewage water (TSW) through phytorid sewage treatment plant (anaerobic and aerobic conditions) and well water (WW) completely randomized design. In both the treatments recommended NPK doses of fertilizers were applied. The results showed better crop growth throughout the growing period. Seed cotton yield was enhanced by 11.82% with treated sewage water irrigation over the irrigation by well water. The accumulation of heavy metal in plant was far below than the prescribed safe limit. Therefore findings give applicable advice to farmers and agricultural researchers for proper management and use of treated sewage water for crop irrigation.