Changes in biological and chemical properties of saline soil amended with municipal solid waste compost and chemical fertilizers in a mustard–pearl millet cropping system

• Efficiency of organic amendments and chemical fertilizers in saline soil was investigated.
• Integrated use of organic amendments along with 25% RDF maintained higher microbial activity and available nutrients.
• Organic amendments along with chemical fertilizers significantly reduced soil EC.

The restoration of microbial activities is a basic step in the reclamation of saline soil. For this reason, the ability of municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) to accelerate the microbiological and chemical properties of soil was evaluated in a field experiment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of combined use of organic amendments viz. MSWC, gypsum enriched compost (GEC), rice straw compost (RSC) and chemical fertilizers as reclamation agents for improving biological and chemical properties of saline soil in a mustard–pearl millet cropping system. Integrated use of 25% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) along with organic amendments (RSC@3.5 t ha− 1 + GEC@3.5 t ha− 1 + MSWC@4 t ha− 1) resulted significantly higher amount of microbial activities, Walkley and Black Organic Carbon (WBC) as well as available KMnO4-N, Olsen-P and NH4 OAc-K over unfertilized control plot after mustard and pearl millet harvest. Combined use of organic amendments along with 25% RDF increased by 50 and 56% higher microbial biomass carbon (MBC) over unfertilized control plot after harvest of mustard and pearl millet respectively. Treatment receiving 100% RDF improved dehydrogenase activity (DHA), alkaline phosphatase activity (APA) and urease activity by 39, 26 and 23%, respectively over unfertilized control plot after harvest of pearl millet crop. Balanced use of organic amendments plus 25% RDF maintained 9, 42 and 16% higher amount of available KMnO4-N, Olsen-P and NH4OAc-K, respectively over the alone use of 100% RDF after mustard harvest. After harvest of pearl millet soil EC (1:2) was significantly lower under treatment receiving organic amendments along with 25% RDF than other treatments.