Groundwater Quality Assessment of some Poultry Farms in Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria, for Irrigation and Household Uses (Published)
The development of enormous irrigation systems has been a major instrumental to worldwide food security, especially in arid zones, but it has also been associated with land and water salinity issues. The shallow hand-dug wells of some poultry farms in Osun State were sampled on seasonal basis and evaluated for their quality and suitableness for agricultural uses. Twenty-four water samples taken from wells were evaluated for physicochemical variables, applying standard methods. The main constituents that determine the water quality for irrigation like electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, sodium adsorption ratio, soluble sodium percentage, residual sodium bicarbonate, magnesium adsorption ratio, Kelly’s ratio and Permeability index were evaluated and in comparison with safe limits. Quality assurance procedures included blank test, recovery analysis and calibration of standards. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data interpretations. The mean values of EC (<600.00 µS/cm), TDS (<400.00 mg/L), SAR (˂1.00 meq/L), SSP (˂25.00%), RSBC (˂0.50 meq/L), MAR (˂ 50.00%), KR (˂0.50 meq/L) and PI (˂2.00 meq/L) were found to be in the safe limits of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency and Food and Agricultural Organization/World Health Organization. Thereby, the groundwater would not cause detrimental effects on the soil properties of the assessment area.
Keywords: : Irrigation, Assessment, Groundwater, Water Quality, physicochemical variables, poultry farms