{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T18:10:00Z","timestamp":1789150200451,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789084800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"OCP office in Addis Ababa"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Soil salinity and sodicity are among the major challenges threatening agricultural productivity in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. A column experiment was conducted in laboratory on saline-sodic soils of Metehara Sugar Estate to evaluate the effectiveness of\n                    <jats:bold>phosphogypsum<\/jats:bold>\n                    and\n                    <jats:bold>leaching in<\/jats:bold>\n                    reclaiming these soils. The treatments comprised of five rates of\n                    <jats:bold>phosphogypsum<\/jats:bold>\n                    equivalent to 50, 75, 100, 150, and 200% gypsum requirement, 100% gypsum requirement of natural gypsum, and an absolute control with no amendments applied, and five volumes of leaching water. The treatments were arranged in Complete Randomized Design with three replications. The leaching water was applied to the columns in an intermittent ponding mode. Leachates and soil samples collected from the columns after termination of the leaching process were analyzed for selected soil properties.\n                    <jats:bold>Results<\/jats:bold>\n                    showed that applying\n                    <jats:bold>phosphogypsum<\/jats:bold>\n                    at a rate of 100% gypsum requirement or higher (which is equivalent to \u2265 13 tons\/ha) along with 3\u20134 pore volume of leaching water was found to be the most effective combination to reduce salinity and sodicity to levels that are suitable for most crops (ECe\u2009&lt;\u20094 dS\/m and ESP\u2009&lt;\u200910%,). The efficiency of\n                    <jats:bold>phosphogypsum<\/jats:bold>\n                    equivalent to 200% gypsum requirement was 81% and 75% in soluble salt removal and Na reduction, respectively. Results of the study suggest that\n                    <jats:bold>phosphogypsum<\/jats:bold>\n                    is a promising\n                    <jats:bold>reclamation material<\/jats:bold>\n                    for saline-sodic soils. However, a greenhouse and field experiments have to be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of these amendments under controlled and natural conditions and come-up with implementable rate recommendations.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0345688","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T17:36:27Z","timestamp":1789148187000},"page":"e0345688","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Evaluation of phosphogypsum and pore volume water rates for reclaiming saline-sodic cambisols of Metehara sugar estate, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-5662-4047","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Kebenu Feyisa","family":"Gonfa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Haramaya University, School of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences","place":["Ethiopia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kibebew Kibret","family":"Tsehai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Haramaya University, School of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences","place":["Ethiopia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sheleme Beyene","family":"Jiru","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Agriculture, School of Plant and Horticultural Sciences, Hawassa University","place":["Hawassa, Ethiopia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lemma Wogi","family":"Mirkena","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Haramaya University, School of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences","place":["Ethiopia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0345688.ref001","article-title":"Soil degradation processes: it\u2019s time to take our head out of the sand","volume":"11","author":"U Nachshon","year":"2021","journal-title":"Geosciences"},{"key":"pone.0345688.ref002","unstructured":"Begum T. 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