TITLE:
Impacts of Pig Manure-Based Liquid Fertilizer Agricultural Application on the Water Quality of Agricultural Catchment
AUTHORS:
Min-Kyeong Kim, Soon-Ik Kwon, Hyen-Cheng Chun, Goo-Bok Jung, Kee-Kyung Kang
KEYWORDS:
Liquid Fertilizer; Livestock Manure; Paddy Field; Upland; Water Quality
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.4 No.2,
February
28,
2013
ABSTRACT: This study was conducted to understand the effect of the livestock liquid fertilizer treatment at field-scale up to catchment-scale on the water quality properties. Cultivated paddy rice and upland plots located in Gyeonggi province, Korea were treated with two different liquid fertilizers, SP (Liquid fertilizer with storage process) and SCB (Liquid fertilizer with slurry composting and bio-filtration process). Plots with no fertilizer (control A) and chemical fertilizer (control B) were also prepared for comparison. Water quantity and quality were monitored at the catchment outlet for assessing the effect on water quality of stream water. As a result, the losses of N and P and the values of EC (Electronic Conductivity) in the surface drainage water from paddy rice plots treated with SP and SCB were higher than those from the control plots (A and B). In addition, the losses of N and P by the runoff water from upland plots with SP and SCB treatment were higher than those from control plots (A and B). The nutrient outflow from paddy rice fields and uplands with application of liquid pig manure was higher than those from the control plots (A and B). Particularly, the outflow from uplands may directly affect the water quality in neighboring streams. This caused the major eutrophication problem in stream water. In conclusion, it is necessary to establish the proper management practices to prevent the nutrient losses from agricultural fields and the pollutants against water environments.