Chemical Properties and Nitrate Contents of Soils and Vegetables of Rugar Liman in Kware Local Government Area, Sokoto Metropolis, Nigeria

Select Volume / Issue:

• Volume 2 Issue 2, March, 2015

Year:

2015

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Chemical Properties, Fertilizer, Nitrate, Pollutant, Vegetable Consumption

Authors:

Musa, Audu; Arinze, Okeke

Journal:

IJRAS

Volume:

2

Number:

2

Pages:

95-99

Month:

March

Note:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Abstract:

Nitrate is one of the common pollutants of both water and soil in the areas where intensive cultivation is carried out under vegetable production. High levels of nitrogenous fertilizers are commonly applied to vegetables to increase yield especially in the highly populated urban and periurban areas where demands for vegetables is also high. In view of this, a study was carried out in Kware Local Government Area of Sokoto State, to assess the nitrate content of soils and vegetables cultivated and supplied to markets in Sokoto town. To achieve this, soil samples were taken from three vegetable farms (onion (Allium cepa), spinach (Spinaceaoleracea) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and a control from a fallow land. From each farm, 3 composite samples at different depths (0–20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm) and nine plant samples each were collected. The samples were taken to laboratory and some chemical properties of the soils and crops were determined using standard methods. Soil pH, nitrate, organic carbon, phosphorous, cation exchange capacity, calcium, magnesium and potassium contents of the soils were significantly (p≤0.05) different based on location (farm-plots).Available phosphorous of soils was low and ranged from 2.60 to 4.36 mg/kg, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and calcium contents were also low. Magnesium value ranged from low (0.27cmol kg-1) to moderate (0.45 cmol kg-1), while, potassium and sodium values were high. The organic carbon was also low with mean value range of 2.5 to 7.3 g/kg, The pH of the soil was strongly acid to neutral condition. Total nitrogen and nitrate in soils of the area were low and decreased with soil depth, indicating little or non-leaching of the applied fertilizers. The result obtained indicated low concentration of nitrate in the vegetable crops and there was no significant (P >0.05) difference between the crops. Based on this result, no harmful health hazard is expected from consuming these vegetable crops in the studied area and there is no evidence of nitrate contamination of the soils.

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