POSSIBILITIES OF CADMIUM REDUCING IN ANIMAL FOOD BY SOIL, LIMING AND GENOTYPE

The harmful elements monitoring, particularly Cd, have become important for environmental protection. Very low concentrations of Cd in dry matter of plant tissues were found under non-polluted environment of the eastern Croatia. With that regard, differences were found in maize leaves as affected by soil type (averages of ten hybrids) from 0.09 and 0.14 ppm Cd, for acid and neutral soil (pH in KCl 4.10 and 6.81), as well as among genotypes from 0.07 to 0.18 ppm Cd. Grain-Cd in maize were considerably lower and below detection limit (<0.02 ppm Cd). Liming is usual recommended management practice for acid soils fertility improvement. Beside effects on crop yields, liming is useful management practice for decreasing Cd transfer into food chain. In the liming experiment on acid soil, we found in maize leaves (2-year averages) 0.17 and 0.09 mg Cd kg, for control and averages of four liming treatments, respectively. Differences were found also between two growing seasons (0.10 and 0.07 ppm Cd, respectively). Also, considerably impact of liming on decreases of Cd in alfalfa hay was found (0.113 and 0.047 ppm Cd, for 0 and 20 t·ha of lime).