الفهرس 
Studying the environmental effect of natural fertilizers substitute on the productivity of some corps
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Abstract
Biochar is a carbonaceous material obtained from thermal decomposition of residual biomass at relatively high temperature and under limited oxygen conditions (pyrolysis). The two types of biochar used in this study were produced from rice straw and palm fronds using slow pyrolysis method (450{u00B0}C for one hr), then characterized by determination of proper physical and chemical characteristics including, nutrients content, cation exchange capacity, saturation percent, pH and EC, as well as examined by FTIR spectral analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scaning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that, the materials of the two types of biochar had reasonable contents of NPK, high CEC, large number of surface functional groups, particles of nano size, and porous structure of high ratio of very small pores. The effect of the two types of biochar on crop productivity and soil properties were examined in a pot experiment carried out in a greenhouse using a sandy soil from Ismailia agricultural research Station. In this experiment, biochar was applied to spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) and Yews mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) combined with or without recommended dose of macro nutrients (NPK) fertilizers to study its effect on growth and yield of vegetables as well as reducing applied doses and consumption of mineral fertilizers. The results show that, in the absence of mineral fertilization biochar addition to a nutrient poor sand soil had little effect on yield. However, at the recommended mineral fertilizers rate, addition of biochar led increase in yield varied between 20-42% comparing with the treatment of mineral fertilizer without biochar. In all tested plants, contents of N, P and K were significantly increased by biochar application. In general, activated biochar application reduces soil pH rather than mineral fertilizers. The two types of biochar (BC-P, BC-R) lead to a slight rising in soil EC (at least 0.3 units) than the soil of control treatments