Technological investigation of the agricultural usability of leonardite in Turkey

In this thesis, leonardite samples were collected from Bitlis/Merkez, Çanakkale/Çan, Bitlis/Merkez, Kahramanmaraş/Elbistan, Bursa/Keles, Erzurum/Horasan and Adıyaman/Gölbaşı leonardite fields. These samples, taken from 6 different fields, were chemically analyzed by an accredited laboratory. The results were compared to results from other studies in the literature. When the results are examined, it is noticed that all the leonardite samples, taken from 6 different fields in Turkey, are rich in humic and fulvic acid content. For this reason, all these leonardite reserves, which cannot be utilized as coal, have the potential of being used as an organic soil conditioner in agricultural activities. It has been determined that leonardite can be preferred instead of the chemicals used as soil conditioners and fertilizers in agricultural activities in order to reduce the import costs and prevent the damage to nature caused by these chemicals. The data obtained from the analyses, point out that Turkey has lots of extensive and high quality leonardite reserves. Analysis results indicate that Çanakkale/Çan, Bitlis/Merkez, Kahramanmaraş/Elbistan, Bursa/Keles, Erzurum/Horasan and Adıyaman/Gölbaşı leonardites include a total humic and fulvic acid content of 62.18 %, 59.58 %, 52.67 %, 52.34 %, 50.64 % and 44.35 %, respectively. It is concluded that, these reserves combined with the other known reserves, are enough in quality and quantity to rehabilitate all agricultural lands of Turkey, the majority of which are poor in organic materials, for 39 years.