Growth, Physiological, Yield and Quality Response in Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) Under Wastewater Irrigation and Different Levels of Phosphorus

Aims: India is one of the most densely populated, developing and industrially fast growing country of the earth that not only facing the problem of water scarcity, but also the mismanagement of tremendous amount of wastewater (WW) produced every day. Therefore a study was conducted in the Aligarh city of India on chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) cv. Pusa Sadabahar to observe the suitability of wastewater for irrigation along with different levels of phosphorus and how minimize the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture by supplementing mineral nutrients through wastewater.

Study Design: Factorial randomized block design

Place and Duration of Study: The pot experiment was conducted during 2011-2012 in the net house of the Plant Physiology, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

Methodology: Three levels of water, 50% wastewater, 100% wastewater and groundwater (GW) were used along with four basal doses of phosphorus at the rates of 0, 20, 40 and 60kgPha-1 with a uniform basal dose of nitrogen and potassium with the rates of 60kgNha-1 and 50kgKha-1 respectively. Fertilizers were applied one day before sowing. Both the waters and soil were analyzed for various physico-chemical characteristics.

Results: All the growth, physiological, yields as well as quality parameters were recorded at 60 days after sowing. Results revealed that wastewater irrigation significantly increases the growth, photosynthesis, yield and quality of the chilli. Lower dose of phosphorus fertilizer at the rate of 40kg ha-1 together with wastewater proved optimum and gave greater shoot and root length, shoot fresh and dry mass, leaf area, photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll content, nitrate raductase, carbonic anhydrase, ascorbic acid and leaf nitrogen content than control and even to higher nitrogen doses along with groundwater.

Conclusion: The wastewater proved an effective source of essential nutrients and even it could not be supplemented the whole nutrient requirement of the chilli but it can reduced the quantity of fertilizers because wastewater also a source of nutrients.