Resources and Environment 2014, 4(1): 25-33 DOI: 10.5923/j.re.20140401.03 Enhancement of Biomass and Yield with Ni Uptake and Tolerance of Brassica juncea (cv. Pusa Bold) by Applying Inorganic Fertilizers in Soil Amended with Flyash and Wastewater Seema Sahay 1,* , Akhtar Inam 2 , Saba Iqbal 1 1 Environmental Science & Advance Plant Physiology Section, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P, India, 202002 2 Botany Section, Women’s college, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P, India, 202002 Abstract The two waste products, flyash (FA) from thermal power plant and wastewater (WW) generated from urban population has assumed a big and important dimension in many countries including India. Harduaganj thermal power plant is source of flyash in Aligarh, famous for lock and nickel plating industries discharging huge amount of wastewater rich in heavy metals. Today both wastes have become an alternative source of chemical fertilizers for local farmers. In this paper, their utilization is discussed on the basis of results obtained in a pot experiment conducted in Department of Botany, while observing the growth, yield and nickel uptake of Brassica juncea (cv. Pusa Bold). The experiment was run with two levels of FA @ 10 and 20 t ha -1 and three doses of NPK @ 40:15:15, 60:30:30 and 80:45:45 kg ha -1 . Results showed that drymatter yield, seed yield and oil content of the crop tested was increased in both FA 10 WW and FA 20 WW as compared to crop grown under GW treatments and control having no FA, WW and NPK. The nickel uptake and translocation factor (Tf) showed the successive potential of Ni tolerance of Brassica juncea in soil amended with FA and irrigated with WW. The Tf was higher in FA+WW treatments than FA+GW and control. The overall results indicated that FA 20 N 60 P 30 K 30 was found to be most suitable combination with assessment of yield and high oil content as well as Ni accumulation in plant parts. Therefore both wastes may compensate the fertilizers consumption and in addition be an alternative option of waste disposal. Keywords Accumulation, Flyash, Wastewater, Indian mustard, NPK, Bioconcentration factor, Transfer factor, Tolerance index 1. Introduction Agricultural lands practices for wastewater use is a one of the options for dealing with as a way of disposing it, where out of ~30 million tons of wastewater ~70% is consumed as an agricultural fertilizer and irrigation source[1], with data on previously, numerous studies founded that wastewater rich with valuable sources such as organic matter, macro and micro nutrients that required by the plant for fertility and productivity of soil and reduce fertilizer application[2] especially N and P required for ample growth to increase the crop yield[3-6], however high content of N, P and K strengthens its fertigation/ manural value of field crops[7]. Flyash (FA) also known as one of the major solid wastes produced as a heterogenous and complex byproduct resulting * Corresponding author: sahayseema47@gmail.com (Seema Sahay) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/re Copyright © 2014 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved from coal combustion in thermoelectric power plants (TPPs). The utilization of fly ash instead of dumping it as a waste material can be both on economic and environmental grounds[8]. The application of FA on agricultural land realizes both benefits and negative effect in environment. Like wastewater, disposal of flyash is also a serious environmental problem. Unlike flyash application to agricultural land does not supply crop requirements of essential plant nutrients such as N and P. However the effect of flyash was more prominent and effective for agriculture when used with wastewater application.[9] analyzed the potential of SLASH (a mixture of sewage sludge, lime and flyash (63:1) on the biomass and yield of Triticum and Sorghum spp. which were enhances up to three fold. Therefore, application of two waste products on urban agriculture land throws a major challenge of disposal and management problem of ever increasing amount of both wastes in an environmentally sustainable manner inspite of meet the twin objectives of nutrition and irrigation inexpensively being a critical inputs in agriculture. But it is necessary to model the concentration-uptake-dose-response