CHARACTERIZATION OF FISH POND WASTEWATER-RECEIVING SOIL AND Supported by

WEIGHT PERAMETERS OF Zea mays (POACEAE)

A. A. Mustapha1, B. L. Abdulrahman1, M. A. Wada1 and R. O. Moruf2

1Department of Soil Science, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria
2Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria

* Corresponding author: e-mail: [email protected]

Received: December 14, 2023 Accepted: March 28, 2024

Abstract: The application of wastewater from fish pond can help boost soil productivity and plant growth. In this study,
the effect of irrigation using different type of fish pond wastewaters on soil chemistry and weight parameters
of Zea mays is assessed. The wastewaters showed acidic values of pH (6.5 to 6.8) and higher values of
temperature (27.4 - 30.5 0C), electrical conductivity (357.3 - 531.3 μs/cm), total dissolved solids (225.3 -
317.9 mg/l) and inorganic element/ compounds (except available phosphorus) compared to the neural
borehole water. The wastewater-receiving soils showed ranges of pH, 6.3 – 6.6; temperature, 27.0 – 28.5 0C,
electrical conductivity, 14.01 – 18.0 μs/cm and total dissolved solids, 27.8 – 35.9 mg/g. The amount of all the
investigated inorganic elements was found to be higher in wastewater-receiving soil with that from concrete
pond having the highest concentration of phosphorus (6.9 mg kg-1), organic carbon (3.4 mg kg-1) and
potassium (1.9 mg kg-1), while that of earthen pond showed the highest value of nitrogen (1.9 mg kg-1). The
crop irrigated with wastewater from the concrete pond showed significant (P < 0.05) highest fresh weight
value (12.39±0.10 kg) while the highest chlorophyll concentration was obtained in Z. mays irrigated with
wastewater from the tarpaulin pond with the value of 0.59 mg g-1. The irrigation of Z. mays with fish pond
wastewaters especially that of concrete pond is therefore recommended.
Key words: Chlorophyll, crop, fish pond, irrigation, soil chemistry.

Introduction farmlands. Organic sources of nutrients hold significant

Agriculture is a predominant activity in Nigeria, with the promise in terms of nutrient content and supply to soils and
aquaculture as one of its vibrant sectors. The water used for fish pond water can be used as an important source of
fish farming in aquaculture was normally dispose-off but nutrients to the soil and crop production (Mustapha et al.,
over time, the fish ponds have been observed to be enriched 2017). With the increasingly high cost of mineral fertilizer
with organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, and micro and as well as the possible acidification of the already fragile
macronutrients, and hence, it can be a potential fertilizer soils of Kano by mineral fertilizers, other alternate sources
supplement and soil conditioner, which could enhance the of nutrients need to be sourced.
environment for crops (Payebo and Ogidi, 2020). Fish Pond Zea mays, more commonly referred to as maize, is a
Wastewater is a cloudy fluid arising from pond, containing member of the grass family Poaceae, or true grasses. It is a
mineral and organic matter in solution or having particles crop with a high demand for nutrients with a high yield
of solid matter floating, in suspension, or in colloidal and response to better nutrient availability. It requires a rain fall
pseudocolloidal form in a dispersed state. of 250 mm to 270mm with sufficient water supply at its
The reuse of wastewater, in particular for irrigation, is an critical growth period (Payebo and Ogidi, 2020). However,
increasingly common practice, encouraged by governments there are few studies on the performance of crop irrigated
and official entities worldwide. According to Ndagi et al. with fish pond wastewater or effect of varying types of
(2020), irrigation with wastewater may have implications at wastewater effluents on the soil quality and maize
two different levels: alter the physico-chemical properties performance. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess
and microbiological content of the soil and/or introduce and the effect of irrigation using different type of fish pond
contribute to the accumulation of chemical and biological wastewaters on soil chemistry, weight and yield of Zea
contaminants in soil. The first may affect soil productivity mays.
and fertility; the second may pose serious risks to the
human and environmental health. The sustainable Material and Methods
wastewater reuse in agriculture should prevent both types Study Collection
of effects, requiring a holistic and integrated risk The experiment was carried out at the teaching and
assessment. research farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Bayero
The soils of Kano are highly weathered and low fertility University Kano (BUK), Nigeria. Kano State lies within
status and the dominant coarse fraction also increases the Latitude 8° 42'E and Longitude 9° 30'N at about 1,578 feet
susceptibility of these soils to nutrient leaching (481 m) above sea level. The area is characterized by
(Abdulrahman and Mustapha, 2021). The increasing human tropical wet and dry climates. Mean annual rainfall and
population places a huge demand and pressure on temperature range between 888.6 mm – 960 mm and 21°C
agricultural production and one of the key crops in demand in September and 46°C in March respectively (KNARDA,
is maize. This increasing intensification and production in 2006). Three different types of fish ponds were identified;
turn place huge pressure on the fertility of the soil concrete, earthen and tarpaulin (Fig. 1-3).
(Mustapha et al., 2020). In a bid to improve and preserve
soil quality, farmers need to supply additional nutrients to

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 Characterization of Fish Pond Wastewater-Receiving Soil and Weight Perameters of Zea Mays (Poaceae)

pond wastewaters, alongside borehole water. Surface

irrigation was consistently employed throughout the
research as the primary source of nutrients for the maize
plants.
Laboratory Analysis
The physicochemical properties were determined following
the methods outlined by APHA (2005). pH was measured
with a Griffin pH meter (model 80). Electrical conductivity
(μs/cm) was measured using a Philip PW9505 conductivity
meter. Organic carbon was determined using Walkley and
Black’s rapid titration method. Total N was determined
using the Kjeldahl method, and Bray 1-P was used for
available Phosphorus extraction. Exchangeable bases were
extracted using l M ammonium acetate solution at pH 7.
Micronutrients were extracted using l M HCl solution, and
Figure 1: Concrete pond the micronutrients in the solution were read using the
atomic absorption spectrophotometer while the
concentration of other inorganic elements was determined
with a flame emission photometer. Chlorophyll
concentration is most accurately measured by extraction of
chlorophyll in a solvent followed by in vitro measurements
in a spectrophotometer (Parry et al., 2014).

The weight of the maize crop was calculated as follows:

𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 [𝑔] = 𝐷𝑟𝑦 𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 [𝑔]
+ 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 [𝑔]
Statistical Analysis
The statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft
Excel 2010 and SPSS (Version 21; IBM; USA) software
Figure 2: Earthen pond packages. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the
soil and water properties while Analysis of variance
(ANOVA) and student t- test were used to test the
differences in the means of the parameters at significance
level of 0.05%.

Results and Discussion

The physical analysis of the fish pond wastewaters and
borehole water are shown in Table 1. The wastewaters
show acidic values of pH ranging from 6.5 to 6.8 while
borehole water gave pH of neutral value of 7.0. Several
factors contribute to lowering the pH in ponds; rain is
acidic, usually with a pH of 5.2 to 5.6, industrial pollution
and fertilizer application can lower the pH of pond
regardless of the type. According to Boyd (2017), fish have
an average blood pH of 7.4, so pond water with a pH close
Figure 3: Tarpaulin fish pond to this is optimum with an acceptable range of 6.5 to 9.0.
Generally, the investigated fish pond wastewaters show
Collection of Wastewater and Preparation higher temperature (27.4 - 30.5 0C), electrical conductivity
The wastewater samples from each pond type, as well as (357.3 - 531.3 μs/cm) and total dissolved solids (225.3 -
ten kilograms each of untreated soil samples (control) and 317.9 mg/l) compared to the borehole water as previously
wastewater-receiving soil samples, were collected from reported by Omofunmi et al. (2020).
within the farm. Soil samples were obtained using sterile Table 2 shows the investigated chemical analysis. Concrete
hand trowels at a depth of ten centimeters and promptly pond has the highest amount of inorganic element/
placed in sterile polythene bags. These samples were then compound such ammonium (68.9 mg/l), chlorine (91.8
transported to the Chemistry Laboratory, BUK, within one mg/l), total nitrogen (0.18 mg/l), zinc (0.09 mg/l), calcium
hour of collection for analysis. (38.69 mg/l), iron (1.94 mg/l), potassium (1.16 mg/l) and
Before collecting the soil samples, land clearing was sodium (0.82 mg/l) and these agree with result of Ndagi et
conducted, preceding the application of wastewater. al. (2020). Furthermore, the result shows that the borehole
Additionally, borehole water and control plots—plots not water contains more available phosphorus than the
irrigated with wastewater—were prepared for maize wastewaters, while manganese was the same in all the four
irrigation. The experimental treatment involved the use of investigated samples with value of 0.07 mg/l.
one maize variety (EVDT) and three distinct types of fish

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 Characterization of Fish Pond Wastewater-Receiving Soil and Weight Perameters of Zea Mays (Poaceae)

Table 1: Physical analysis of borehole water and fish pond wastewaters before application to experimental site
Wastewaters
Parameters Borehole water
Concrete Pond Earthen Pond Tarpaulin Pond

pH 7.0 6.5 6.8 6.6

Temperature (0C) 25 29.2 30.5 27.4
Electrical conductivity (μs/cm) 301.7 357.3 508.2 531.3
Total dissolved solids (mg/l) 178.4 225.3 306.3 317.9

Table 2. Chemical properties of borehole water and fish pond wastewaters before application to experimental
site
Parameters Wastewaters
Borehole water
(mg/l) Concrete Pond Earthen Pond Tarpaulin Pond

Ammonium 47.90 68.90 57.20 65.4

Bicarbonate 43.80 53.10 61.62 68.00
Chlorine 65.10 91.80 82.80 86.70
Available Phosphorus 1.31 0.59 1.04 0.75
Sulphur 0.53 0.58 0.74 0.73
Total Nitrogen 0.13 0.18 0.16 0.16
Zinc 0.04 0.09 0.03 0.05
Calcium 22.09 38.69 18.09 26.57
Iron 0.42 1.94 0.64 0.51
Magnesium 1.01 1.13 1.44 1.34
Manganese 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.07
Potassium 0.30 1.16 0.95 0.79
Sodium 0.71 0.82 0.80 0.81

The physical analysis of fish pond wastewater-receiving having the highest concentration of phosphorus (6.9 mg kg-
1), organic carbon (3.4 mg kg-1) and potassium (1.9 mg kg-
soils is shown in Table 3. The wastewater-receiving soils
showed ranges of pH, 6.3 – 6.6; temperature, 27.0 – 28.5 1), while that of earthen pond showed the highest value of
0C, electrical conductivity, 14.01 – 18.0 μs/cm and total nitrogen (1.9 mg kg-1). These were in support of earlier
dissolved solids, 27.8 – 35.9 mg/l, while the control soil reports that the application of wastewater from fish pond
had mean higher pH value of 6.8; lower temperature, 26.6 through surface irrigation system improves the physico-
0C; lower electrical conductivity, 10.7 μs/cm and lower chemical properties of the soil in terms of soil electrical
total dissolved solids, 22.0 mg/g. conductivity, total soil nitrogen, total organic carbon, total
Table 4 presents the chemical analysis of the fish pond organic matter, soil minerals, exchangeable acidity and
wastewater-receiving soil. The amount of all the cation exchangeable acidity capacity (Nsoanya, 2019;
investigated inorganic elements was found to be higher in Musa et al., 2020; Samuel et al., 2021)
wastewater-receiving soil with that from concrete pond
Table 3: Physical analysis of borehole and fish pond wastewater-receiving soils
Wastewater-Receiving Soil
Parameters Control
Concrete Pond Earthen Pond Tarpaulin Pond

pH 6.8 6.5 6.6 6.3

Temperature (0C) 26.6 27.0 28.5 27.0
Electrical conductivity (μs/cm) 10.7 14.1 18.0 14.1
Total dissolved solids (mg/g) 22.0 35.3 27.8 35.9

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 Characterization of Fish Pond Wastewater-Receiving Soil and Weight Perameters of Zea Mays (Poaceae)

Table 4: Chemical analysis of borehole and fish pond wastewater-receiving soil

Parameters Wastewater-Receiving Soil
Borehole water
(mg kg-1) Concrete Pond Earthen Pond Tarpaulin Pond

Nitrogen 0.9 1.7 1.9 1.2

Phosphorus 1.5 6.9 1.4 1.3
Organic carbon 1.82 3.4 2.5 2.7
Potassium 0.8 1.9 1.3 1.1

The weight parameters and chlorophyll concentration of similar trend with result obtained by Ndagi et al. (2020),
wastewater-receiving Z. mays are shown in Table 5. The where highest weight yield of 0.35 tone/ha was observed in
fish pond wastewaters have great influence on the weight maize irrigated with fish pond wastewater.
of the Z. may as wastewater-receiving crops have higher In the present study, the highest chlorophyll concentration
fresh weight ranging from 8.92±0.05 kg (earthen pond was obtained in Z. mays irrigated with wastewater from the
wastewater crop) to 12.39 ±0.10 kg (concrete pond tarpaulin pond with the value of 0.59 mg g-1. However,
wastewater crop). The crop irrigated with wastewater from there is no significant difference in the chlorophyll
the concrete pond showed significant (P < 0.05) highest concentration between the control and the wastewater-
fresh weight value (12.39±0.10 kg). Furthermore, the Z. receiving Z. mays. Jawale et al. (2017) reported similar
mays irrigated with fish pond wastewater had higher dry findings in maize where the highest chlorophyll content of
weight (3.31±0.01-3.93±0.05 kg) as compared to the 0.76 mg g-1 was observed in treatment receiving complete
control crop weight (3.29±0.04 kg). The result shows a nutrient package from wastewaters.

Table 5: Weight and chlorophyll content of fish pond wastewater-receiving Zea mays
Wastewater-Receiving Maize
Parameters Control
Concrete Pond Earthen Pond Tarpaulin Pond

Fresh Weight (kg) 7.62±0.01a 12.39±0.10b 8.92±0.05a 8.94±0.01a

Dry Weight (kg) 3.29±0.04a 3.93±0.05a 3.40±0.05a 3.31±0.01a
Chlorophyll Contents (mg g-1) 0.58±0.02a 0.55±0.01a 0.56±0.05a 0.59±0.01a
Keys. Mean±Standard Error; values with different superscripts across row are significantly different at P ˂ 0.05.

Conclusion https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804564-
The study revealed a higher influence of wastewater from 0.00006-5
different fish pond over the borehole water on Zea mays Islam MS, Khanam MS & Sarker NI 2018. Health risk
weight and chlorophyll concentration through soil quality assessment of metals transfer from soil to the
improvement. Maize irrigated with fish pond wastewater edible part of some vegetables grown in
had higher fresh and dry weights as compared to the control Patuakhali province of Bangladesh. Arc Agri
crop weight but no significant difference in the chlorophyll Environ Sci., 3(2): 187-97.
concentration between the control and the wastewater- Jawale SA, Patil VD, Jawale SA & Satpute U 2017. Effect
receiving crops. However, the influence of wastewater of soil fertility levels on chlorophyll content of
from concrete pond can be concluded to be more efficient maize crop. Journal of Pharmacognosy and
for maximum soil quality for Z mays production. Phytochemistry, 6(6): 95-97.
KNARDA 2006. Mission, vision and achievements of the
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