Reusing Agricultural Wastewater for Tomato Production using Different Sources of Organic Fertilizer under the Conditions of the Delta Region

Abstract

The availability of fresh water (both in quantity and quality) is decreasing and becoming a major concern worldwide. The agricultural sector is the largest consumer of fresh water, so there is an urgent need to improve the agricultural practices to fill the gap between both water supply and demand, which is a fundamental aspect of the main baisics of sustainable agriculture. Hence, one of the possible strategies to achieve this is the reuse of agricultural drainage water, especially with the current climate change. This research focuses on reusing agricultural wastewater in tomato production by applying organic fertilizers. The impacts of applied bioshar, compost, cattle manure and vermicompost on vegetative growth, leaf chemical composition, and productivity of tomato plants irrigated with agricultural drainage water were evaluated. As a result of the experiments, all organic soil amendments significantly enhanced vegetative growth parameters including plant height, fresh, dry weights, and leaf area compared to the control plants. These treatments also significantly increased photosynthetic pigments, yield and fruit quality of tomato plants. Conversely, the activity of antioxidant enzymes and heavy metal content were significantly reduced in response to organic fertilizers. Biochar exhibited the highest values for the studied vegetative growth parameters, leaf pigments, nutrient content as well as productivity, but the lowest levels of enzymatic activity and heavy metal content. Overall, the research suggests that agricultural wastewater can be reused for tomato production, especially in area with limited fresh water availability by using organic fertilizers such as biochar, vermicompost, compost and cattle manure.