An incubation experiment was carried out in the department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, ANGRAU, Hyderabad, India during 2013−14 with 12 treatments including control to study the mineralization pattern and timely release of nutrients (N, P, K and soil enzymes) to plant from different sources and periods. Mineralization of nitrogen (NH 4 +-N and NO 3-N), phosphorus (P 2 O 5) potassium (K 2 O) and soil enzymes (urease, acid and alkaline phosphatase and dehydrogenase) activities from different treatments were evaluated. During initial period 7 to 21 days after incubation (DAI), the recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) had maximum release of NH 4 +-N and NO 3-N and later on decreased in the succeeding days but manures combination treatment has taken lead to release the N from 1 DAI to 70 DAI than control. Similar trends were followed in available P 2 O 5 and K 2 O. The maximum quantity of urease and DHA were reached 203 to 227 µg NH 4 +-N g-1 soil h-1 and 10.6 to12.4 µg TPF g-1 soil h-1 from combination of poultry manure and neem cake at 70 DAI, respectively. Maximum released of acid and alkaline phosphatase were observed in 21 DAI and 35 DAI in RDF respectively. Among the manures treatment, PM+NC had superior in releasing of alkaline phosphatase over other, followed by poultry manure and FYM+PM. Correlation study between nutrients (N, P and K) and enzymes activity showed that a significant (p<0.05) positive relationship with each others.

Water is very important to life and earth surface is covered by 3/4 of the water resources. Water quality is critical factor affecting human and soil health and also quality of agricultural products. Studies showed that approximately 1.7 million deaths and 1.9 million disabilities worldwide are attributable to unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene 11. Ground water is an important resource for domestic and agriculture in both rural and urban areas of India. The chemical composition of ground water is very important criteria that determine the quality of water. Water quality is very important and often degraded due to agriculture, industrial, human activities and geogenic pollution. Even though the natural environmental processes provide by means of removing pollutants from water, there are definite limits.

A pot study was conducted during kharif, 2018-19 in College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, Hyderabad, with the aim to evaluate the response of maize to different levels of zeolite and nitrogen and to know the influence of zeolite on selected soil properties. The treatments consists of combinations of 3 levels of nitrogen (100, 150, 200 kg ha-1) and 4 levels of zeolite (0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 t ha-1) along with a control in which only P and K were applied and they were replicated thrice in a factorial completely randomized design. Results indicated that application of zeolite (7.5 t ha-1) and nitrogen (200 kg ha-1) individually had significant effect on N, P, K contents in maize at 30, 60, 90 DAS and at harvest. N and P contents in maize was significantly higher in N200Z7.5 (Nitrogen @ 200 kg ha-1 + Zeolite @ 7.5 t ha-1) however, there was no significant interaction with respect to K content. At harvest, the available P and K were significantly higher in the treatment receiving N100Z7.5.

Imbalanced use of fertilizers for agricultural production has now become a global concern. As a result, studies on how to use efficient methods to reduce nutrient applications at the same time increasing or maintaining crop yield, reducing nutrient losses and improving nutrient use efficiency are imperative. Accordingly, a pot study was conducted to evaluate whether zeolite application might improve selected soil properties, nitrogen use efficiency during maize cultivation. Among all treatments, irrespective of the nitrogen level, NUE (N recovery and agronomic use efficiency of N) showed an increasing trend with the increase of zeolite levels, nitrogen levels and their combination. The highest N recovery and agronomic NUE was obtained in N200Z7.5 (Nitrogen @ 200 kg ha-1 + Zeolite @ 7.5 t ha-1), was on par with N200Z5 (Nitrogen @ 200 kg ha-1 + Zeolite @ 5 t ha-1). N uptake by maize at harvest was highest in N200Z7.5 (Nitrogen @ 200 kg ha-1 + Zeolite @ 7.5 t ha-1).

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