Effect on Food crops and Food Quality:
Unplanned discharges of industrial wastewater degrade the quality of food crops. The total land irrigated with raw or partially diluted wastewater has been estimated to be about 20 million hectares in fifty countries, which is approximately 10% of total irrigated land
The higher concentration of released industrial effluent causes many types of inhibitory effects in the crop plants on their germination speed, peak value, germination value, plant growth, crop yield, accumulation of heavy metals in plants which can lead to poor human health.
The proper treatment and dilution of the effluent is therefore needed before the disposal and usage of wastewater for irrigation purposes. As the Industrial effluents, contain both organic and inorganic compounds which have strong influence on the development of growth of crop plants. When the concentration of the pollutants in the effluents are low, the agriculture reuse of the treated effluents serves goals such as promoting sustainable agriculture and conservation of the scarce water resources. While, high concentration of the effluents causes many plant growth related problems.
Industrial wastewater causes accumulation of heavy metals that are toxic in plants and thus affect the plant growth, seed germination, lower crop yield and there by cause human health hazards. The adequate dilution of effluents treatment is therefore needed before the disposal and reuse of waste waters for irrigation purposes.
The unplanned discharges of industrial wastes degraded the quality of food crops which include size, shape, taste, colour and odour etc. All these factors determine the market value. Food qualities also increase satisfactory consumption of the food items by the growers. The contaminated soil exerted significant negative effects on the growth, yield and nutrition of rice and grass plants grown in it and the reductions were more pronounced in rice. The contents of N, P and K in the rice plants grown on the contaminated soil are also decreased and increased S and Na contents.
