Abstract:
Soil nutrient deficiency, alkalinity and heavy metal toxicity are the most serious constraints for soil
fertility and crop productivity around industrial zone in Dukem, central Ethiopia. Integrated nutrient man-
agement is essential to resolve this problem there by increasing the productivity of the soils. Therefore, trials
were run in greenhouse to evaluate the response of selected soil physicochemical properties and heavy metals
to mineral NP and vermicompost fertilizer application. Three rates (2.5, 5.0, 7.5 t/ha) of vermicompost with
three rates of mineral NP (25, 50, 75%) and control treatment were arranged in randomized complete Block
design (RCBD) with three replication. The results revealed that integrated application of 7.5 t/ha vermicom-
post and 75% NP increased the exchangeable Ca, Mg, K, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, total N
and available P by 341.51, 78.71, 133.3, 26.18, 33, 54.28 and 172.38%, respectively as compared to the control.
Whereas, heavy metals Cr, Pb, Cd and Ni decreased by 80.74, 81.25, 79, 44 and 46.41%, respectively and
exchangeable sodium and pH were also decreased at the same treatment. However, sole mineral NP fertilizer
increased heavy metal availability. Therefore, the combined application of 7.5 t/ha vermicompost and 75%
NP was found to be the best for the enhancement of soil physicochemical properties and reduction of heavy
metals in study area and other similar agroecologies
