Assessment of Soil Fertility and Crop Nutrient Status in Agricultural Soils Near a Brick Kiln Cluster

Brick kiln exhaust when deposited can hamper the nutritional status of the agricultural soils and crops. To study the impact, soil and associated plant samples were collected from the vicinity of a brick kiln cluster in Chattogram, Bangladesh. The soil contamination was evaluated by heavy metal indices. Agricultural soils close to the brick kiln area were very strongly acid to slightly acid. Organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus content of the agriculture soils near brick kiln cluster were 0.35% to 1.01%, 0.10 to 0.24% and 2.21 to 13.48 mg kg-1 respectively and the significant different mean value of 0.70%, 0.22% and 14.65 mg kg-1 respectively in the reference soil. The nutritional status of sampling sites was lower than the previously reported data. The nutrition status of the plants was at an optimum level as regular fertilizer application was practiced but showed an irregular pattern along with all the soil parameters and heavy metal indices. The contamination factor (Cd), potential ecological risk index (PER) and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) demonstrated that the agricultural soils in the vicinity of the brick kiln cluster were moderately- to highly-polluted. This indicates the deterioration of soil quality by uncontrolled brick kiln operation.