Consideration of tobacco dust as organic amendment for soil: A soil & waste management strategy

Abstract: Soil is non-renewable reserve that has high frequency of contamination and very low rate of replenishment in this environment. Immense food requirements have evolved the compelled usage of chemical fertilizers to have optimum crop leaf area in minimum time scale that have devastating impacts on biological, physical and chemical properties of the soil. Organic farming is an ultimate solution for the soil management. Tobacco dust an agro-industrial waste can be applied to the soil to recycle essential nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) back into the soil that plant has taken up from the soil. Tobacco dust is rich in nitrogen (N) (2.35%), potassium (K) (1.95%) and phosphorous (P) (937 ug/g) which can provide essential nutrients to the soil and plant. It has abundant quantity of organic content that exceeds the micro and macro-organism movement in soil which further increases the porosity of the soil; increase the infiltration of the oxygen. This study has indicate that tobacco dust increases the pH of the soil, maintain the electrical conductivity (EC) that does not leads to the salinity of the soil. Further it also increases the nitrogen (N) content in various vegetable, house-plants and wheat straws and increases the biomass content and average survival rate of the tomatoes. It’s a good insecticide; prevent the insects and other viruses such as Tobacco mosaic virus that are detrimental for the crops such as pepper, cucumber that shows light and dark green, crinkled, puckered leaves. Furthermore it’s an eco-friendly management strategy for soil, environment and human healt