Paper Presentation in National Seminar

Mrs..Siva kumari and Mr.P.Srinivasa Rao attended a one day national seminar on Climate Change and its Impact on Biosphere.Mrs B.Siva Kumari presented a paper on

“Comparative study of non-grafted and grafted water melon and tomato plants’ efficiency to absorb minerals and heavy metals from marginal water irrigation”

Mrs. B.SIVA KUMARI and FR. DR. S.EMMANUEL S.J.

Andhra Loyola Botany Research Centre,
Dept of Botany, Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada

Abstract

Soil is one of the important natural sources. It is our responsibility to conserve our soil resources, in our country. To satisfy the demand for food and to combat desertification in the semiarid and arid regions, marginal water sources such as saline water and treated domestic sewage (effluent) are increasingly used for irrigation. In these effluents, the EC and pH values, and the concentrations of micro-elements, nutrients and dissolved organic matter are, in general, significantly higher than in fresh water. These are harmful to plants in general and to the edible plants in particular. The experiments are mainly conducted with fruit-yielding plants namely grafted and non grafted water melon and tomato in a greenhouse and the field, to compare the responses to irrigation with fresh and effluent water. In general the non-grafted plants accumulated more Na, Ca, Mg and Cl than the grafted ones. Similarly the concentrations of microelements like B, Zn, S Mn, Cu, Ti, Cr, Ni, and Cd in the fruits were lower in the grafted plants than in the non-grafted plants. From these results it may be concluded that grafting could be a useful tool to prevent the accumulation of harmful minerals, trace elements and heavy metals in the fruits.

Keywords

Fruit safety, effluent irrigation, heavy metals, accumulation more in non-grafted variety, Minerals.