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Amon rice cultivation depends mainly on monsoonal rainfall. But due to scarcity of rainfall in growing season of 2014, farmers used arsenic contaminated shallow tube well water for irrigation purpose often used for boro cultivation. This changed the traditional irrigation system of monsoon rice. Thus, the work aimed to investigate the trend of arsenic in rice field and the accumulation of arsenic in different parts of the paddy plants due and also to determine the arsenic concentration in grains if it was safe or not for human consumption.The monsoon fed rice field irrigated with STW showed a higher concentration of arsenic in upper layer and decreased with increasing soil depth, as happened in boro cultivation. Starting period of plantation of paddy some amount of rainfall occurred hence, the soil arsenic filtered to the lower soil layer and increased the concentration of As. But, afterwards most of field were irrigated with STW, so the As concentration accumulated more at upper layer of soil. The mean concentration (mg/kg) of As (48.5), Cr (71., Fe (43,200), Cd (0.36) & Pb (5.55) in the experimental soil and As (11.0), Cr (67.9), Fe (41,163), Pb (7.45), Cd (0.34) in the control field. The Concentration (mg/kg) of As in different parts of the
experimental crops are roots (50., straw (21.9), husk (0.7 and grain (1.6). In the study it was found that even though it was a monsoon cultivation, the arsenic in rice grain was above the permissible limit given by WHO and unsafe for consumption. The presence of As in rice grain through the water-soil crop routes has raised a worldwide concern in terms of food
safety. This triggers a possible dietary risk to human health and also risk of environmental hazards. |