WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
USE OF FLY ASH IN AGRICULTURE: INDIAN SCENARIO
Vimal Kumar* & Gopal Krishna Jha**
Abstract
Fly ash a residue of burning of coal / lignite in thermal power plant has traditionally been considered as a waste
product. It’s generation in the country has increased from 40 Mn T/yr (1994) to about 235 Mn T/yr (2013). It is
projected to be 325 Mn T/yr (2016-17), 500 Mn T/yr (2021-22) and 1000 Mn T/yr (2031-32). If not utilized, it
would demand large area of land for ash ponds and would pose a threat for air and water pollution. Fly ash
utilization has increased from 1 Mn.T/year during 1994 to 130 Mn.T/year during 2013, primarily as an out
come of concerted efforts under Fly Ash Mission-India.
It has been proved to be a useful supplement for agricultural application in addition to use in cement, bricks &
blocks, road embankments, low lying area filling, mine applications, etc. Fly ash, being a good soil ameliorant
& source of secondary plant nutrients as well as micronutrients can significantly improves the physio-chemical
properties (like B.D., W.H.C., pH, CEC, free lime etc.). It can efficiently be used as a source of silicon,
pesticide carrier, plant growth promoter, etc. Use of fly ash has also been reported for reclamation of
degraded/problematic soils & wastelands. It has also been reported to be safe for agriculture application in
context of toxicology & radioactivity
Key Words: Fly ash, coal ash, mission mode approach, technology, agriculture, forestry.
1.0 Introduction
Power is the key to the prosperity and development of a nation. For electricity generation,
India depends mostly (55-60%) on coal-based thermal power plants which annually
generates 235 million tonne (2013) fly ash and is projected to exceed 325 million tonne by
2017 and 1000 million ton by 2031-32.
As of now this large volume of fly ash occupies nearly 50,000 ha of land and poses
environmental threat, if not managed well. Nearly 2000 MnT of fly ash has been
accumulated over a period of time in ash ponds of different thermal plants which have not
been utilized.
It was during early 1991 that fly ash caught the attention of Department of Science &
Technology, Government of India. In-depth techno-market study was undertaken. The
broad objective was to document the status of existing knowledge and technologies about fly
ash utilization / safe management, market acceptance levels and the threat that fly ash posses
to environment, if not utilized as well as a suggested action plan.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
* Adviser, Centre for Fly Ash Research & Management (C-FARM), New Delhi and Former Mission Director &
Head, Fly Ash Unit, DST, GoI, Email: [email protected] (Cellphone:9818443449)
**Senior Scientist, Centre for Fly Ash Research & Management (C-FARM), New Delhi
@ The views expressed are purely of the author and not of the organizations of their current/past affiliation.
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
Prior to 1990, large numbers of efforts have been made to develop and commercialize
technologies for use of fly ash. Academia, national research institutes, private R&D as well
as industry have worked in this area. However, most of the work remained confined within
the academia / research arena. A few utilizations of fly ash were made primarily in mass
concrete, brick / block manufacturing and reclamation of low lying areas.
Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), Ministry of Power (MoP) and a few other
agencies took initiatives. National Waste Management Council (NWMC) and a few other
groups/committees consisting of senior officials of various Ministries/Departments, State
Governments, Research and Development Institutions, etc. were formed. Thermal Power
Plants were directed to take actions to enhance ash utilizations and a few fiscal incentives
such as rebate on excise duty and sales tax were declared.
It highlighted that only a meagre percentage (less than 3 per cent) of ash was being utilized in
the country and the balance was being stored in ash ponds through slurry discharge system.
The report brought to fore that the fly ash that is being considered as a waste material, is in
fact a useful material and can be put to gainful economic applications.
2.0 Mission Mode Approach
Appreciating the overall concern for environment and the need for safe disposal and gainful
utilization of fly ash, the Government of India commissioned Fly Ash Mission during 1994
as a joint activity of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Power and
Department of Science & Technology with Department of Science & Technology (DST) as
the Nodal Agency. The focus is on Technology Demonstration Projects for developing
confidence in fly ash technologies towards large scale adaptation. The overall objective was
to increase significantly the fly ash utilization in the country from a meagre 3% of 40MnT
generation during 1994.
The overall complexity of technology development, transfer, infrastructure support, inter-
institutional linkages, development of market, orientation of Government policies to promote
and support fly ash utilization were the challenge. Further, as no single utilization held the
potential to provide a solution to this mammoth task of safe disposal and gainful utilization
of fly ash, a judicious mix of a number of applications was to be evolved (considering impact
timeframe, investment requirement, technical and infrastructure inputs requirements by fly
ash utilization, potential and expected returns, etc.). The large numbers of demonstration
projects were undertaken to build the confidence of potential user and decision makers,
especially to develop a critical mass for replication. Use of fly ash in agriculture including
forestry, horticulture & floriculture was an important & integral part of the program. The
formulation of national standards, code of practices / guidelines, legislations and facilitating
mechanisms were essential to get wider acceptance on self sustaining principle.
Over a period of last twenty years, the image of fly ash has completely been changed from a
“Polluting Waste” to “Resource Material”. The utilization in the country has increased to
about 130 MnT during 2013. Simultaneously generation has increased to 235 MnT/year. The
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
focused thrust being provided by Fly Ash Mission (FAM) is being continued through Fly
Ash Unit (FAU), Department of Science & Technology (DST).
The achievements of Fly Ash Mission are acclaimed across the globe including import of
technology, know how & managerial expertise by Federation of Russia to establish Fly Ash
Mission-Siberian Region on similar lines of FAM-India.
3.0 Relevance of Fly Ash for Agriculture
The ashes are good sources of available secondary (Ca, Mg and S) and micronutrients (Zn,
Fe, Cu and Mn), The texture being sandy silt to silty loam improves water holding capacity
and percolation in sandy as well as clay soils for beneficial effects.
Laboratory & field research as well as large scale field demonstration projects have shown
encouraging results in terms of 10 to 25% increased yield, improvement in WHC, aeration,
tillage, control of soil borne pests, crust formation & use efficiency of fertilizers, etc.
India is also working hard to improve it’s agriculture out put from the available cultivable
area to meet the growing needs. Fly ash can play a important role in this context.
4.0 Results of application of fly ash in Agriculture
FAM undertook 16 R&D technology demonstration projects at 55 project sites in the country
during 1994-2004 and 10 field demonstration projects. Thereafter a large number of
replication projects & actual use by farmers are happening. The detailed results are presented
below:
The spread of FAM projects over variety of crops in different soils across the country is
summarized in Table 1 and 2, below:
Table 1: Numbers of project sites that have addressed to various agricultural practices
investigated with fly ash in arable soils, ash filled areas and problematic/degraded soils.
Sl. no. Agricultural practices Group
Arable soils Ash filled Problematic/degraded soils Total
areas
1. Cereals 97 2 2 101
2. Pulses 12 0 1 13
3. Oil seeds 39 3 2 44
4. Horticulture 19 3 0 22
5. Cash crops 19 1 0 20
6. Fodder 2 0 0 2
7. Floriculture 0 4 0 4
8. Forestry 0 6 4 10
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
Table 2: Field crops & vegetables grown with fly ash in different soil types at various project
sites
Sr. Soil Fly ash doses Crops & No. of Sites Location
No range
1 Alluvial Soil 0-200 t/ha Rice, wheat (2) Farakka
2 Alluvial Soil 0-100 t/ha Mustard, jute (1) Farakka
3 Laterite Soil 0-200 t/ha Rice, wheat (4) Bakreshwar
4 Laterite Soil 0-100 t/ha Mustard, Potato,Lentil (1) Bakreshwar
5 Black Soil 0-50 t/ha Sugarcane (1) Chidambaram
6 Laterite Soil 0-150 t/ha Groundnut (1) Neyveli
7 Laterite Soil 0-100 t/ha Sugarcane (1) Neyveli
8 Black Soil 0-150 t/ha Rice-Green Gram (1) Sathamangalam
9 Black Soil 0-120 t/ha Cotton-Rice (1) Vellampudugai
10 Lateritic Soil 0-10 t/ha Rice-Groundnut (3) Kharagpur
11 Lateritic Soil 0-20 t/ha Rice, Groundnut-Mustard (1) Kharagpur
12 Lateritic Soil 0-30 t/ha Mustard-Rice (1) Kharagpur
13 Lateritic Soil 0-10 t/ha Rice (2) –Mustard, Groundnut, Balarampur,
Potato (1) Gholghoria, Burari
14 Lateritic Soil 0-80 t/ha Sunflower-Groundnut (2) Raichur
(Red)
15 Black Soil 0-80 t/ha Sunflower-Maize (2) Raichur
16 Alluvial Soil 0-650 t/ha Tomato (1), Cabbage (1), Potato Dhodhar, Nilgiri,
(1), wheat (2), Pea (1) – Maize Rihand Nagar
(6), Wheat-Maize (2)
17 Alluvial Soil 0-650 t/ha Sunflower (1), tomato (1), Nilgiri, Rihand Nagar
Potato (1), Wheat (1), Berseem
(1), Red Gram (1), Maize (1),
Rice (1)
18 Alluvial Soil 0-40/0-80 t/ha Rice-Wheat (1), Cotton-Wheat Ropar, Bhatinda
(1), Sunflower-Maize (1)
Wheat-Rice (1)
19 Alluvial Soil 0-12 t/ha Wheat (1) Ropar (Astalpur)
20 Alluvial Soil 100% ash body Arhar-Wheat (1) Bhatinda
with 7.5 cm soil
cover
21 Black Soil 0-640 t/ha Wheat-Maize, Soyabean-Maize, Sarni
(Residual Effect) Lemon Grass (1)
22 Alluvial Soil 0-640 t/ha Maize-Onion, Rice-Sunflower (1) Angul
4.1 Impact on yield
Yield increase has been reported for all crops with application of fly ash. The crops include
cereals, pulses, oil seeds, cotton, sugarcane, fodder crops, horticultural crops, ornamental &
medicinal plants. The increase in yield of cereal crops have been reported 10-15%, in case of
pulses and oil seeds 20-25% and in vegetable as well as in other crops up to 40%. Table 3
provides the yield increase data for various crops.
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
Table 3: Per cent yield increase over control for various crops
Crop Increase Over Control Soil Type FA/PA Dose t/ha*
(Common range, %)
Paddy 10-15 Alluvial 200 t/ha
Wheat 15-20 Laterite 200 t/ha
Maize 10-15 Black 30 t/ha
Lentil 15-20 Laterite 100 t/ha
Green Gram 20-25 Black 150 t/ha
Groundnut 25-30 Black 30 t/ha
Sunflower 20-25 Red 60 t/ha
Mustard 15-20 Laterite 10t/ha
Tomato 35-40 Landfill 650 t/ha
Cabbage 30-35 Landfill 650 t/ha
FA: Fly Ash PA: Pond Ash LANDFILL: Area filled with fly ash
* Other inputs viz. NPK and FYM dose have been applied as per normal package & practices of Agriculture.
4.2 Impact on soil health
It has been observed that the addition of fly ash to the soil results in multi-beneficial effects
including (i) improvement in the available N, available P2O5 and available K2O, as also in
the contents of available secondary nutrients like Ca++ & Mg++ and available micronutrients
such as Zn, Mn, Cu, in soil, and (ii) significant improvement in the physico-chemical
properties (like bulk density, maximum water holding capacity, pH, electrical conductivity,
etc.) of various kind of soils resulting in better soil health. Impacts of fly ash on physio-
chemical properties of different soils of some of the project sites are placed in Table 4,
below:
Table 4: Physio-chemical properties of soils at the start (s) and completion (c)
Proj. Soil type FA dose start/ pH EC BD WHC N P K Ca Mg S TDA
Site t/ha comp dS/m gm/C % % % % % % % mg/kg/
letion m2 24 hr
1 Alluvial PA 200 s 7.99 1.04 1.52 42.88 0.109 0.068 0.975 0.003 0.002 0.352 68.73
sandy loam
c 8.06 0.12 1.42 48.55 0.114 0.075 0.908 0.003 0.002 0.032 78.3
2 Acidic Red PA 200 s 5.01 0.05 1.63 30.92 0.051 0.013 0.768 - - 0.057 Nil
sandy loam
c 5.39 0.04 1.52 44.73 0.016 0.001 0.01 - - 0.005 12
3 Acid Laterite DFA 10 s 5.32 0.02 1.67 34.20 - - - - - - -
sandy clay loam
c 5.88 0.03 1.52 37.90 - - - - - - -
3 Acid Laterite PA 10 s 4.99 0.02 1.52 35.30 0.047 0.52 0.17 - 0.049 - -
sandy clay loam
c 5.55 0.03 1.49 39.50 0.062 0.06 0.188 - 0.055 - -
4 Alluvial PA 30 s 9.40 1.97 1.16 49.11 4.7 11.2 390.0 - - 1.5 2.58
clay loam ppm ppm ppm
c 9.50 1.87 1.14 51.79 57.8 15.67 530 - - 26.6 6.1
ppm ppm ppm ppm
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
5 Alluvial PA 1170 s 6.40 0.12 1.30 27.40 0.25 0.06 1.7 - - 0.015 NA
sandy loam
c 7.40 0.21 1.25 40.00 0.059 0.076 6.7 - - 0.373 2.4
6 Alluvial PA 80 s 7.66 0.55 0.92 - - 399 2102 7105 2708 89.5 -
sandy loam ppm ppm
c 8.85 0.28 1.33 - - 485 2193 1075 3204 135 -
ppm ppm 5ppm ppm ppm
7 Alluvial clay PA 300 s 7.80 0.46 1.10 64.60 - - - 380 72 NA -
c 8.40 0.25 1.31 55.00 150 40 170 2435 403 12 -
ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm
4.3 Impact of radioactivity and heavy metal
Detailed study of radio nuclides and heavy metals content in fly ashes and their impact on
agriculture use has been undertaken in association with Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of
India and Indian Council of Medical Research, Govt. of India. Chemical as well as biological
studies are conducted. It concludes that the levels of radio nuclides and heavy metals content
in fly ashes, fly ash admixed soil and crop produce are within safe/normal range. The
magnitude values can be seen at Table 5, below:
Table 5: Impact of radioactivity & heavy metal content in fly ash, soil and produce
Sample Radioactivity(Bq/kg) Trace & Heavy metals (ppm)
40 226 228
K Ra Ac B Mo As Se
ESP fly ash 280-432.5 43.6-115.4 55-129 17.1-28.0 2.5-6.7 1.0-4.0 1.6-2.6
Pond ash 280-353 69-92 77-108 18.3-23.1 2.6-5.3 1.4-3.6 1.2-2.3
Soil 160-326 30-58.8 37-80 13-17 0-4.8 1.9-2.9 2.4-4.0
Grain 9-95 0.29-0.75 0.60-1.60 0.2-1.6 0-1.2 0-0.45 0.10-1.0
Straw 8.4-10.9 039-0.72 078-1.00 0.29-0.42 0-0.67 0-.40 018-0.55
Vegetables 0.6-85 0.1-0.5 0.4-0.8 0.72-1.3 0.2-0.06 0.10-0.50 0-0.14
Oil seeds 60-110 0.3-0.8 0.6-1.0 0.1-1.3 0.2-0.6 0.3-0.4 0.10-1.06
Normal
4000* 1000* 1000* 2-100** 0.1-40** 5-100** 0.1-10**
range in soil
*Source: Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Radiological Safety Division, Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of
India letter no AERD/RSD/28/2002/6007 on dated. July 26, 2002
**Source: P.C Srivastava and U.C. Gupta (1996): trace element in crop production, oxford and IBH publishing
Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
It is also observed that the measured levels of radio nuclides in Indian fly ash are below the
limits specified, in environmental point of view. The grains, straws and vegetables produced
from fly ash applied soils are safe for human and animal consumption. Therefore, in India fly
ash has a great potential for utilization in agriculture.
The daily intakes of radio nuclides due to consumption of the agricultural produce grown in
fly ash treated soils have also been calculated. It is found that the consumption of such
eatables is also within safe limits as is evident from the Table 6, below:
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
[ Table 6: Daily intake ratio of radio nuclides through eatables grown with fly ash
Food Items Daily Maxm radionuclide level (Bq/kg)
40 226 228
consumption (gm) K Ra Ac
Grain 400 95 0.75 1.0
Vegetable 200 85 0.50 0.8
Daily intake of radionuclide (Bq/kg)
Grain - 38 0.30 0.4
Vegetable - 17 0.10 0.16
Total - 55 0.40 0.56
Safe limit: -
- Daily intake (Bq)* - 104 0.61 2.2
- (Bq/kg)@ 173.34 1.00 3.67
* IOP, a constituent laboratory of BARC, Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India.
@
Calculation based on * and daily consumption of grain/vegetables.
4.4 Other Impacts
It has been observed that in last two decades number of R&D has been undertaken in India
on use of fly ash in various aspects including agriculture. Fly ash has emerged as a very
resourceful material for agriculture and reclamation of problematic/degraded soils. Some of
the impacts are dealt herewith:
4.4.1 Fly ash as a source of silicon
The fly ash in general reacts with soil and releases Si which can be effectively used as a
source of nutrient for crops. The benefit of Si was highlighted by scientists as spotlight
wherever the Si sources of material viz., rice straw, rice hull ash, sugarcane baggasse ash and
other available industrial bye products. In recent years the importance of Si fertilization has
been realized in view of intensive cultivation of crops where depletion of Si occurs in rice
soils which responded to Si sources.
4.4.2 Fly ash as a water conserver
One of the study showed that fine pond fly ash when incorporated@ of 25t/ha in a highly
percolating sandy loam soil increased the average grain yield of rice and wheat by 3.9% and
4.12% respectively over the control. Cultivation of rice required 14 to 17% less irrigation
whereas in case of wheat it required 14 to 20% less irrigation water.
Owing to more fineness of pond fly ash incorporated in upper layer of soil in leaching
columns, flow rate of irrigation water applied in rice and wheat seasons decreased
significantly over the control that resulted in significant reduction in leaching losses of NO3-
and K+.
4.4.3 Fly ash as an insecticide and pesticide carrier
Extensive studies made so far in India have concluded that the fly ash could be a good
insecticide and an active carrier in chemical and herbal insecticides for use against various
kinds of pests infesting different crops like, rice, vegetables, oil seeds, fruit plants including
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
store grains. There is also scope for application of the fly ash as a carrier in developing
insecticides to check house-hold pests like, cockroaches etc.
Morphological analyses of the fly ash particles revealed spherical shape containing mostly of
Silica as Silicon–di- oxide (SiO2) which is present in two forms: amorphous which is
rounded and smooth and crystalline which is sharp and pointed. These differently shaped
particles of the fly ash could adhere to the body skin of the insects firmly as the body
morphology is contained with variety of structures like, hairs, scales, spine-like processes,
nodules, pustules, vesicles etc. When the fly ashes are delivered in the field as dusts through
mechanical dusters, they reach the targets namely the foliage of the plants, cling to it and
remain for considerably long time to check the pest damage. These morphological features
of the fly ash revealed that there was better dispersion of the filler in the synthesis of
chemical and herbal insecticides while incorporating carrier – value to the fly ash.
4.4.4 Vermin composted fly ash
Among different methods of composting of organic materials, vermin composting
technology is recently emerging as an important one owing to simplicity as well as high
efficiency of this technology in producing better quality compost, as compared to traditional
methods of composting. Use of fly ash with organic and mineral wastes will not only help in
extracting more amount of plant nutrients into available forms from insoluble mineral
fractions in fly ash, but will also enrich the material with organic matter for improving the
soil health. The organic materials, excreted by the earthworms in half digested forms, contain
micro organisms and enzymes in high concentrations, which help in rapid aerobic
decomposition of these excreted organic materials resulting in the production of good quality
compost in lesser period of time along with multiplication of different beneficial micro
organisms. In addition, the solubility of various heavy metals in fly ash also declined on
vermin composting due to formation of complex like metallothionene by the earthworms.
These beneficial effects of vermin composting of fly ash have been observed in field levels
also. Use of vermin composted fly ash resulted in substantial yield increments in case of rice,
potato and tomato.
5.0 Use of Fly ash in Forestry & reclamation of problematic/degraded soils
5.1 Use of fly ash in forest plantation
Results of field demonstrations in forest plantation by the various agencies under the aegis of
Fly ash Mission as well as of other scientific bodies envisaged that application of fly ash in
forest plantation would create remarkable benefits. The bio-metric parameters such as
germination rate, height and girth of the plant and sapling grades of various species grown
with fly ash have found significantly improved as compared to control without exhibiting any
adverse effect.
5.1.1 Impact of fly ash on survival & growth of planted species
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
The growth and vigour of the planted species with fly ash have found improved over control
i.e. without fly ash. The mortality rate of various spp. have found reduced except shisham.
The girth of the planted species except karanj (Pongamia pinnata) have found increased by
20-30%. Similarly, in most of the planted species plant height and number of branches have
found increased over control. Results are placed at Table 7, below:
Table 7: Effect of different dose of fly ash on survival rate (%), girth* (cm) & height* (cm) of
diff. plant species (4th year of plantation)
Plant Survival Plant girth Plant height
species Control 25% FA 50% FA Control 25% FA 50% FA Control 25% FA 50% FA
Teak 78 92 96 27.5 35.5 42.0 218.5 228.0 294.0
Acacia 85 85 86 17.5 18.0 27.5 232.0 230.5 241.0
Radhachura 82 90 85 35.5 42.5 46.5 230.0 241.0 266.0
Chhattiyan 72 84 90 28.5 32.5 36.0 268.0 274.0 264.0
Karanj 90 86 96 27.0 22.5 26.0 240.0 284.5 295.0
Shisham 82 86 80 28.5 33.0 39.5 247.5 256.0 274.0
Anwla 85 86 96 21.0 27.5 29.5 222.0 232.4 271.0
* mean of 20 replications
5.1.2 Impact on soil
The impact in control soil and fly ash admixed soil at different treatment level varied
markedly. Addition of fly ash in latertic soil improved the soil physical properties like
texture, bulk density (B.D.), water holding capacity (W.H.C.) and porosity. The
concentration of major nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are slightly
increased in treated soils as compared to control. The results are given in Table 8, below;
Table 8: Effect of diff. dose of fly ash on physio-chemical properties of soil (3rd yr of plantation)
Parameters Fly ash Soil (Initial) T0 (Control) T1 T2
(25% Fly (50% Fly ash)
ash)
Soil Texture
Sand (%) 38.4 72.8 70.4 62.2 56.2
Silt (%) 49.5 19.4 18.2 24.5 32.8
Clay (%) 12.1 7.8 11.4 13.3 11.0
B.D. (G/CC) 0.98 1.82 1.65 1.58 1.54
WHC (%) 64.60 42.4 44.7 54.0 52.4
POROSITY (%) 40.25 34.9 36.2 38.2 36.0
Chemical Properties
pH 7.8 5.4 5.5 5.8 5.6
OC (%) 0.57 0.25 0.38 0.42 0.44
Total N (ppm) 0.076 145 166 172 168
Av. P (ppm) 24.6 34.0 36.6 38.0 41.0
Av. K (ppm) 130.0 194.0 184.4 178.8 188.0
5.2 Use of fly ash in forest nursery
Findings of the field demonstrations carried out for raising of forest nursery envisaged that
plant saplings grown in 50% pond ash and soil (v/v) mixture in poly tubes along with control
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WACAU-2014, Israel
International Workshop on Agricultural Coal Ash Uses
27 – 29 May 2014
beds (without pond ash) has better growth. The grade of various plant saplings which is the
major criteria from its economic point of view has been observed to have increased by 20-
25% over control.
5.3 Use of fly ash for reclamation of sodic soil
Fly ash has also been successfully demonstrated for reclamation of sodic soil. The effect of
pond ash alone and in combination with other amendments on eradication of sodicity is
found suitable for replacement of gypsum at much lower cost. The application of fly ash and
gypsum either alone or with farm yard manure had a synergistic positive effect in increasing
the yield of paddy, wheat and mustard in highly sodic soil. Results of all the fields’
experiment/trials indicate that based on the degree of alkalinity/salinity pond ash can
effectively substitute 50% gypsum requirement. Application of pond ash at 1.5% (30t/ha) can
substitute 50% gypsum requirement and about 6% (120t/ha) pond ash can replace 100%
gypsum requirement.
6.0 Conclusion
Fly ash has been found to be good soil ameliorant as well as a source of micronutrients.
Application of fly ash also improves WHC (reducing irrigation requirement by about 10-
15%), improves texture, aeration and reduces crust formation. Fly ash is also a good
amendment for sodic and saline soils as well as for reclamation of other
degraded/problematic soils.
One time field application of fly ash/pond have shown sustained improvement in yield and
soil quality up to 7-8 years without showing any adverse effect on soil or crop produce
quality either due to chemical or other properties of fly ash.
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