Title: Effect of Powdered Date Palm Karab Waste on the Available Water Holding Capacity of a Saudi Arabian Sandy Soil

Biography:

Maryam Haroon AL-Soufi is a PhD student at the University of Putra, Malaysia. Her breadth of experience combines industry with academia; she worked for almost five years with Saudi Aramco Oil before joining Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Saudi Arabia as a lecturer. She earned a master’s degree in biotechnology in 2002 from the Arabian Gulf University in the Kingdom of Bahrain. She holds a granted patent and has presented a number of conference papers and posters.

Abstract

Water scarcity and the low fertility of sandy soils constitute major challenges that impede agriculture in various parts of Saudi Arabia. One approach to overcoming these hurdles is the use of moisture-retaining soil amendments. These amendments aim to enhance the poor available water holding capacity (AWHC) of sandy soils, which is a critical physical parameter that determines the required amount and frequency of irrigation water for a given soil. Currently, a variety of moisture-retaining soil amendments are commercially available and widely used, yet the quest for more sustainable, economical, efficient, and locally produced amendments continues.

A potential Saudi Arabian resource for producing such desired soil amendments is Karab, which is the Arabic name given to the pruned trunk waste of date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera). The fate of the gigantic mass of Karab produced annually is to become landfill, either directly or after cindering. Therefore, this study investigated the potential use of Karab—obtained from two widely cultivated date palm cultivars, Khalas and Khunaizi—as a moisture-retaining soil amendment. The potential efficiency was measured by comparing the calculated AWHC for samples of powdered Karab mixed with sandy soil at different ratios to the AWHC of control samples consisting of neat sandy soil and neat powdered Karab.

The results revealed that the simple powdering of Karab to function as a moisture-retaining soil amendment offers a potential large-scale utilization of the waste. This use of Karab would consequently conserve precious irrigation water, enhance crop yields, and abate an enormous amount of greenhouse gas emissions.