Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(5): 2677-2683 2677 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.605.300 Effect of Sludge Addition on Biological Properties of Soil under Rice Cultivation Anil Kumar Verma 1* , Raj Dev Singh 1 , Brijesh Yadav 2 , Ravi Kumar Meena 1 and Chiranjeev Kumawat 1 1 Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, 2 Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Sewage sludge is a liquid-solid residue resulting from the treatment of urban or industrial effluents. The application of sewage sludge in agriculture as a source of plant nutrients and as soil conditioner is increasingly being favoured by the farmers not only in our country but across the globe. The total sewage generated from urban areas was estimated 62,000 million litres per day (MLD) while the treatment capacity across India is only 23,277 MLD, or 37% of sewage generated (CPCB, 2016). Although sewage sludge having a relatively variable composition, it is rich in organic matter, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P)and sulphur (S) potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg)(Gray, 2010; Mtshali et al.,2014; Golui et al., 2014). It can be considered as a viable alternative for fertilizer, beside it act as a soil conditioner. The properties and composition of sewage sludge may vary with the sources and season. Metal concentrations in sewage sludge vary widely depends mainly on its origin, for example, industrial wastes usually International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 5 (2017) pp. 2677-2683 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com A pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of sludge application on metal uptake and biological properties of soil by basmati rice (Oryza sativa, var Pusa Basmati 1121) grown on alkaline soil of IARI farm. In this study, the sludge was collected from Okhla sewage treatment plant, South Delhi. Sludge was added @ 0, 40, 80, 120, 160, and 200 g per pot of soil, which are equivalent to field application of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 t ha -1 . All six treatments were replicated thrice and experiments were laid out in completely randomised design. The result shows that all the biological properties viz. acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase and fluorescein diacetate activity (FDA) were increased for all sludge treated pots over control. Therefore, results can be concluded as sludge is a good source of plant nutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulphur (S) and two important micronutrients i.e. of zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) and also helps in improvement in fertility and important biological properties of soil. Keywords Alkaline soil, biological properties, Sludge, Rice Accepted: 25 April 2017 Available Online: 10 May 2017 Article Info