NAME: ANOLD DAIMON

Registration Number: BEMT/19/SS/009

Programme of Study: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Concept Title: ASSESSMENT OF LEVELS AND IMPACTS OF SPECIFIC

HEAVY METALS ON THE SOIL APPLIED WITH POULTRY
MANURE IN CHITUKULA VILLAGE, LILONGWE

Contents

CHAPTER 1. Brief Introduction and Literature Review........................................................1

CHAPTER 2. Problem Statement...........................................................................................2

CHAPTER 3. Hypothesis........................................................................................................2

CHAPTER 4. Objectives........................................................................................................3

4.1 Main Objective...............................................................................................................3

4.2 Specific Objectives.........................................................................................................3

CHAPTER 5. Potential Methods............................................................................................3

5.1 Sampling.........................................................................................................................3

5.1.1 Study Area...............................................................................................................3

5.1.2 Sampling Method....................................................................................................3

5.2 Potential Method to Use.................................................................................................4

5.2.1 Type of Method for each Parameter........................................................................4

5.2.2 Materials needed for the proposed method.............................................................4

CHAPTER 6. Expectation......................................................................................................5

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 6.1 Expected Outcomes of the study....................................................................................5

6.2 Expected costs................................................................................................................5

References.....................................................................................................................................6

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CHAPTER 1. Brief Introduction and Literature Review

The heavy metal contamination has become one of the major environmental problems that is
attracting much research interest to researchers at worldwide. So far, studies to define heavy
metals, their sources and evaluation of their potential impacts on the environment are being
conducted continuously. In Malawi, a few studies concerning heavy metals in water, air and
soils have been carried out (Mussa et al., 2020).

According to Shafaqat et al., (2013) “heavy metals are trace metals which are detrimental to
human health and having a density at least five times that of water”. Heavy metals are present
in water, soils and the biosphere. They are introduced in an area either through natural activities
such as volcanic eruptions and weathering of rocks and soils or through manmade activities.
The manmade activities that enhance availability of heavy metals in an area include;
application of inorganic fertilizers that contain traces of metals, use animal manures in
agriculture, disposal of coal combustion remains in an area, use compost and bio solids such as
sewage sludge or slurry on land. Common metals in the soil include chromium, arsenic, copper,
cadmium, lead mercury, zinc, nickel as well Selenium, Molybdenum and Antimony (Basta et
al., 2005).

For centuries, the use of organic manure which includes poultry manure was questionable and
there was a need to study and evaluate the impacts on soil chemical properties, leachates as
well as evaluating the critical application levels of manure in the soil (Del et al., 2014). Up to
this date, such studies are still important to carry as the use of organic manure is becoming
predominant in agricultural sector. The organic manure is considered to be cheap, easy to make
and relatively effective for crop production. However, chemical elements obtained from
manure accumulates in an environment upon being deposited in it and changes quality of the
environment. A study by Chaney & Oliver, (1996) illustrated that heavy metals such as copper,
zinc and arsenic are added in poultry feeds to enhance growth of chickens. Also heavy metals
may be introduced to chicken bodies through various chemical treatment like vaccination and
drugs for disease control. Portions of these metals are then deposited in the chicken droppings.

It is said that processing bio solids before application on land helps to moderate the availability
of heavy metals in the bio solids and in the soils (Shafaqat et al., 2013). The heavy metals are
transferred from the growth enhancers of the chickens into manure. Plants absorb the metals
from soil and releases the metals back into the soil when they die.

Livestock and poultry manure are used as an alternative source of fertilizer. Manure replaces
inorganic fertilizer in farming where use of agricultural chemicals such as chemical fertilizers
is limited by financial or environmental concerns. Poultry manure also helps in boosting up
quality of soil, crop production and sustain existing ecosystems. However, the heavy metals
and other chemical elements from animal manure causes metal pollution in the soil wherever

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they are applied as manure. The application of manures which contains heavy metals on soil
also points towards to affecting soil chemistry and plant growth (Del et al., 2014).

The literature of Díaz-Barrientos et al., (2003) indicated that heavy metals have effects on both
plants and animals. Depending on the type of heavy metals present in the soil, the impacts
caused on plants may be either positive or negative. For example, the plants may experiences
stunt growth and produce poor quality yields when the soils are polluted by metals such as
nickel, cadmium and lead. On the other hand, plants grow healthier in heavy metal
contaminated soil if the specified metals present in the soil are naturally used for plant growth.
These include, zinc, copper and manganese. Despite the nature of the impact of heavy metals
on plants, the prolonged exposure of plants to heavy metal contaminated soils will lead to high
accumulation of the metals in the plants. When animals feed on these plants they encounter
various health concerns such as infection of kidney, cardiovascular, nervous as well as bone
diseases.

The heavy metals enters the body through ingestion and inhalation. When the body's
detoxification systems cannot remove the trace metals from body tissues quickly enough, a
progressive build-up of these poisons results (Suruchi & Khanna, 2011). This write up only
focuses on the availability and levels of specific heavy metals in the soil as a result of the
dependence on poultry manure in agricultural production.

CHAPTER 2. Problem Statement

The use of poultry manure in crop production on land is influencing the heavy metal
contamination in the soils. The heavy metal contamination is negatively affecting Malawi as a
country. For instance, Malawi is experiencing food and health insecurities. Probably, farmers
introduces heavy metals to the soils when they apply poultry manure. The heavy metals are
recycled in the food chains as human and animals feed on these plants containing heavy metals.

In the their cycle, the heavy metals leads to many negative impacts including the reduction in
production and quality of crops, the quality water bodies, air quality and threatening the health
and life of living organisms which utilizes that soil (Macrae, 1993). The metals found in soils
include; cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn).

In Chitukula village, the farmers also use the poultry manure in crop production hence
themselves and the local ecosystem are exposed to all impacts that heavy metals found in
manure may expose on plants and animals. This study will provide recent data on the levels of
heavy metals including Zn, Cr, Cd and Ni in soils applied with poultry manure. This will assist
various stakeholders to plan and implement mitigation measures and provide data for future
researches related to this research topic.

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CHAPTER 3. Hypothesis

It is probable that the soils in Chitukula village will contain high levels of heavy metals which
are sourced from the poultry manure used on farm for crop production.

CHAPTER 4. Objectives

4.1 Main Objective

 To assess levels and impacts of specific heavy metals on the soil applied with poultry
chicken manure.

4.2 Specific Objectives

 To analyze levels of Zn, Cr, Cd and Ni in the poultry manure and the soils applied with
poultry manure.

 To compare Zn, Cr, Cd and Ni levels found in the soil with the recommended WHO
standards for heavy metals in the soil.

CHAPTER 5. Potential Methods

5.1 Sampling

5.1.1 Study Area

This study will be conducted in Lilongwe district in the Central Region of Malawi. Chitukula
village is an area located in Lilongwe and is at 25 kilometres north of Lilongwe. It is situated
nearby Bowa, Masasa, Kamlembo and northwest of Mphande villages. Chitukula village has an
elevation of 1194 metres, latitude 13° 47’ 11” South and longitude 33° 45’ 16” East. Local
farmers in the area collects chicken droppings from poultry companies such as Central Poultry
and use the droppings as manure in their farm garden.

5.1.2 Sampling Method

Two types of sampling will be used to sample both poultry manure and the soils. These are
simple random sampling, and systematic and grid sampling. One farm garden will be used for
conducting this study. The farm is purposively chosen for sampling since the owner uses the
poultry manure for agricultural activities on this land. In the assessment of the soil, a total of 16
samples will be required and the collection of this samples will be based on systematic and grid
sampling technique. Reference grids will be generated to divide the proposed farm area into
four sections. From each section, four samples of soil will be collected and be analysed for Zn,

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Cr, Cd and Ni levels with each sample being analysed for a single parameter among those four.
The sections will be labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4 for easy identification. From each section the sample
to be used for a certain parameter will be labelled with the section number and parameter name.
For example, sample from the section 1 being analysed for Zn, will be labelled 1-Zn. Thus all
samples in the study will be 1-Zn, 1-Cr, 1-Cd, 1-Ni, 2-Zn, 2-Cr, 2-Cd, 2-Ni, 3-Zn, 3-Cr, 3-Cd,
3-Ni and 4-Zn, 4-Cr, 4-Cd, 4-Ni.

Simple random sampling will be used to sample the poultry manure. Four samples of manure
will be collected from a supplier of the manure used by the farmers. Each sample will be
analysed for a specific parameter and samples will be labelled according to the name of the
parameter to be analysed using that sample.

5.2 Potential Method to Use

5.2.1 Type of Method for each Parameter

PARAMETER METHOD SOURCE OF

INFORMATION
Zinc (Zn) Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Yawar et al., 2010)
(AAS)
Cadmium (Cd) Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Sisay et al., 2019)
(AAS)
Nickel (Ni) Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Ma et al., 2015)
(AAS)
Chromium (Cr) Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Ma et al., 2015)
(AAS)

5.2.2 Materials needed for the proposed method

PARAMETER PROPOSED MATERIALS NEEDED

METHOD
Zinc Atomic Absorption
Spectroscopy  Flame Atomic absorption
Chromium spectrophotometer,
 16 soil samples, four poultry
Cadmium manure samples,
 Plastic bags or bottles
Nickel  250mL digestion vessels,
 Vapour recovery device,
 Drying ovens and hotplate
 Thermometer or thermocouple

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  Whatman filter paper,
 Analytical balance,
 Graduated cylinder
 Volumetric Flasks– 50mL.
 Nitric acid (HNO3)
 Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)

(Bojić, n.d.)

CHAPTER 6. Expectation

6.1 Expected Outcomes of the study

The levels of heavy metals in the sampled and analysed poultry manure and the soils will differ
significantly. There are also high possibilities that the poultry manure will contain the metals in
high concentration levels as they are regarded as the source of the heavy metals in this study.

6.2 Expected costs

A total amount of MK400, 000 is expected to cover all costs in this study. This amount will be
used in the following activities; sample collection and sampling activities, materials used for
analysis of sample in the laboratory, miscellaneous and contingency.

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References

Basta, N. T., Ryan, J. A., & Chaney, R. L. (2005). Trace Element Chemistry in Residual-
Treated Soil: Key Concepts and Metal Bioavailability. Journal of Environmental Quality,
34(1). https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2005.0049dup

Bojić, A. (n.d.). Determination of heavy metals in soil by atomic absorption spectrometry.

Chaney, R. L., & Oliver, D. P. (1996). Sources, potential adverse effects and remediation of
agricultural soil contaminants. In Contaminants and the Soil Environment in the
Australasia-Pacific Region. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1626-5_11

Del, M., Delgado, M., & Peralta, F. A. (2014). Heavy metals concentration in soil , plant ,
earthworm and leachate from poultry manure applied to agricultural land. February.

Díaz-Barrientos, E., Madrid, L., Maqueda, C., Morillo, E., Ruiz-Cortés, E., Basallote, E., &
Carrillo, M. (2003). Copper and zinc retention by an organically amended soil.
Chemosphere, 50(7). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0045-6535(02)00695-1

Ma, K., Qu, F., Chen, Z., Zhu, X., & Hou, J. (2015). A method for rapid detection of heavy
metals in soil and its application. Proceedings of the World Congress on Intelligent
Control and Automation (WCICA), 2015-March(March), 109–113.
https://doi.org/10.1109/WCICA.2014.7052696

Macrae, R. (1993). Metal contamination of food. 2nd edition. Food Chemistry, 47(2).
https://doi.org/10.1016/0308-8146(93)90249-f

Mussa, C., Biswick, T., Changadeya, W., Wilson, H., & Annett, M. (2020). Occurrence and
ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in agricultural soils of Lake Chilwa catchment
in Malawi , Southern Africa. SN Applied Sciences, 2(11), 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-03718-7

Shafaqat, K. S., Samra, A., Sana, H., Samar, A., Muhammad, F., Shakoor, B., Aslam, S., Hafiz,
B., Tauqeer, M., Sardar, K., Ali, S., Hameed, S., Afzal, S., Fatima, S., Shakoor, M. B.,
Bharwana, S. A., & Tauqeer, H. M. (2013). Heavy Metals Contamination and what are the
Impacts on Living Organisms. Greener Journal of Environmental Management and
Public Safety, 2(4), 2354–2276. www.gjournals.org

Sisay, B., Debebe, E., Meresa, A., & Abera, T. (2019). Analysis of cadmium and lead using
atomic absorption spectrophotometer in roadside soils of Jimma town. Journal of
Analytical & Pharmaceutical Research, 8(4).
https://doi.org/10.15406/japlr.2019.08.00329

Suruchi, & Khanna, P. (2011). Assessment of heavy metal contamination in different

vegetables grown in and around urban areas. In Research Journal of Environmental
Toxicology (Vol. 5, Issue 3). https://doi.org/10.3923/rjet.2011.162.179

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Yawar, W., Naeem, K., Akhter, P., Rehana, I., & Saeed, M. (2010). Assessment of three
digestion procedures for Zn contents in Pakistani soil by flame atomic absorption
spectrometry. Journal of Saudi Chemical Society, 14(1).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jscs.2009.12.019