DefinePK

Abstract

The present study was conducted to perform quantitative analysis and comparison of Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus contents in rice husk and wheat bran samples. Rice and wheat are leading staple food and are cultivated in Pakistan at large scale. During refining process the rick husk and wheat bran are removed from rice and wheat grains. Both rice husk and wheat bran contain nutrients in specific proportion, that’s why these can be used effectively for different purposes such as soil amendment and organic fertilizer to retain yield and increase soil fertility. In this study the detection of Nitrogen in rice husk and wheat bran samples was done by using elemental analyzer, Potassium detection was done by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer and Phosphorus was detected by using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry. The result of this study shows that rice husk contains more Nitrogen (0.476±0.0687) and Phosphorus (0.0504±0.007211) contents as compared to wheat bran (0.410±0.0679) and (0.0101±0.00387) respectively. However in wheat bran, Potassium content (26.706±2.47) was slightly higher than rice husk (25.986±1.573). It can be concluded that rice husk contains comparatively more nutrient value as eco-friendly organic fertilizer than wheat bran.
Keywords: Rice husk; heat bran; Organic fertilizer; NPK; Soil Amendments
http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2012.11003