In the less developed parts of southern Africa, where agriculture is crucial in daily survival, agricultural lime is often difficult to obtain. This is due to the scarcity of production sites, high transport costs and inadequate support for farmers from government extension services. In Zambia there are upwards of 700,000 small-scale farmers who struggle to farm on acid soils and as a result ha...

Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) by-products are created when coal is burned and SO2 is removed from the flue gases. These FGD by-products are often alkaline and contain many nutrients including S. Agricultural application of FGD by-products is encouraged but little information is available related to plant responses and environmental impacts concerning such use. Agricultural lime (ag-lime) and s...

Soil acidification is caused by a number of factors including acidic precipitation and the deposition from the atmosphere of acidifying gases or particles, such as sulphur dioxide, ammonia and nitric acid. The most important causes of soil acidification on agricultural land, however, are the application of ammonium-based fertilizers and urea, elemental S fertilizer and the growth of legumes. Ac...

Three techniques for treating fish ponds with agricultural limestone were evaluated in ponds with clayey soils in Brazil and in ponds with sandy soils in South Africa. Amounts of agricultural limestone equal to the lime requirement of bottom soils were applied by the following methods to each of three ponds: (1) direct application over the pond surface; (2) spread uniformly over the bottom of t...

The River Yläneenjoki catchment in southwest Finland is an area with a high agricultural nutrient load. We report here on the nutrient removal performance of three on-site lime-sand filters (F1, F2, and F3), established within or on the edge of the buffer zones. The filters contain burnt lime (CaO) or spent lime [CaO, Ca(OH), and CaCO]. Easily soluble lime results in a high pH level (>11) and l...

Lime treatment of wastewater sludge has been in use for over a century. This paper describes the use of ‘Liquid Lime’ and hydrated lime suspensions as a sludge treatment process for the specific purpose of agricultural recycling. The introduction of ‘Liquid Lime’ treatment has enabled South West Water to achieve full compliance with the Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations at a time when the...

Gypsum is being applied to ameliorate subsoil acidity and to overcome the problem of very slow lime movement from surface lime applications. Reduced Crude Conversion Spent Lime (RCCSL) containing anhydrite was evaluated for use as a liming material with specific consideration given to the movement of sulfate into the acid subsoil. Agricultural lime and RCCSL were applied at 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5...

Agricultural liming materials are used to correct soil acidity and to improve plant growth and microbial functionality. A relatively low-grade agricultural lime was found to contain up to 125 mg kg(-1) arsenic (As), which is above any fertilizing materials code threshold. The color of the milled material is brown due to ample oxide dendrites. Microprobe elemental maps confirmed that these acces...

• Canola is one of the most profitable crops available to grain growers in southern and western Australia and rotations have been adapted to accommodate it. • Canola provides large yield benefits to subsequent cereal crops by providing an effective disease break. • Canola was often grown as the first crop after pasture but now canola is often used more intensively in rotations, posing problems ...

Rural areas of Cambodia have no safe waste management strategies for household latrine waste. Household application of lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) would enable households to treat waste easily on-site and significantly reduce the risk of latrine sludge causing negative impacts on human health and the environment, whilst transforming latrines into incubators of a valuable agricultural addi...