Exploring the scientific research on coal fly ash and agriculture: knowledge mapping and future research directions

This paper aims at synthesizing the scientific research on coal fly ash and agriculture using bibliometric analysis. The research on fly ash and agriculture has grown at 6.7% annually during 1973–2022, where much attention has been received after 2007. The number of publications on coal fly ash and agriculture reached above 100 in the year 2010, which further increased to 299 by 2020. The research productivity has been assessed as the most influential countries, journals, and documents in terms of a number of publications and citations on fly ash and agriculture. India is the most productive country in terms of knowledge on coal fly ash and agriculture with 38% of the global publications, while Environmental Science and Pollution Research is the leading journal with 19 publications. The article on assessing the impact of fly ash incorporation in soil systems by Pandey and Singh (2010), having 349 citations with 26.85 citations per year is one of the leading publications globally. Further, science mapping has been conducted to comprehend the current research focus and discover the emerging themes for future research. The finding of the thematic map based on the level of development and importance indicate that FA can be effectively explored as soil-additive for improved physical, chemical and biological properties and enhanced plant nutrients. The findings provide several aspects of fly ash and suggest future research directions to study the potential of using coal fly ash in agriculture to gain an agronomic advantage.