استخدام مياه الصرف الصحي المعالجة ثلاثيا في إنتاج المحاصيل العلفية تحت ظروف سلطنة عمان

الملخص EN

Sultanate of Oman suffers from water scarcity because of low rainfall and high temperature.

The expected production of treated wastewater could be 100 Mm3 per year in 2012 and this amount would increase to 220 Mm3 per year in 2020 onwards.

In this sense, two studies were conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Rumais, from 2004 to 2010 targeted the use of tertiary treated wastewater (TWW) in the cultivation of forage.

In the first study; 3 experiments were conducted to test the performance of crops varieties under TWW (Expt.1, in winter 2004/ 05 three varieties of maize, Expt.2, in summer 2005 three varieties of sorghum, Expt.3 in winter 2005/06 four varieties of barley.

In the second study, two experiments were used to test the yield and water use efficiency of forage maize under TWW.

Results showed that the plant height (cm), forage and dry matter yield (t/ha) has increased under the influence of TWW.

Regarding the heavy metals and microbial quality of TWW, it was found that the heavy metals and the microbial were very low or within the Omani standard.

From that, and from regional, Arabian and worldwide studies which explained the importance of treated waste water, it can be seen that the treated waste water is very important source that can be used for irrigation.

Therefore, treated wastewater can be used as an alternative source to improve the situation of water scarcity as well as to increase the area of wheat and forage crop production for sustainable agriculture in Oman.