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Sustaining Soil Quality, Resilience and Critical Carbon Level under Different Cropping Systems in Semi-Arid Tropical Alfisol Soils


Affiliations
1 ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Canning Town, South 24-Parganas 743 329, India
2 ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
 

Subsistence agriculture practice and a combination of harsh climate and fragile soils along with increasing demographic pressure are matters of great concern from the viewpoint of resource management and longterm sustainability in the semi-arid tropical Alfisol soils of India. In this study, soil quality index (SQI) has been computed on 190 sites of farmers' fields in southern India to evaluate the possible effect of land management practices on soil degradation and determine the critical levels of soil organic C stock to maintain a desirable SQI and also suggest appropriate management practices. In all, 26 predominant physical, chemical and biological properties of soils were studied and based on principal component analysis, moisture retention at field capacity, available soil N, available P, DTPA-extractable Zn, exchangeable sodium percentage, C-mineralization and bulk density were identified as the key indicators of the study region. SQI was also computed using four soil functions, viz. nutrient cycling, availability of water, resistance of soil to degradation, and salinity and sodicity. Soil resilience index was computed using data on substrateinduced respiration after exposing the soil to heat stress. SQI was highest under paddy followed by permanent fallow, maize, cotton, intercropping, redgram, and was lowest under castor system. Based on the results, it was observed that the soils which had higher SQI were also productive and they exhibited higher resilience capacity. An amount of 8.6 Mg ha-1 soil organic C stock per 15 cm depth was found essential to maintain soil quality and 2.2 Mg ha-1 of organic matter was needed every year to maintain this stock. On-farm participatory research trial was conducted using SQI as a tool for sustainable land-management practices.

Keywords

Cropping Systems, Organic Carbon Stock, Soil Quality and Resilience, Sustainable Land Management.
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  • Sustaining Soil Quality, Resilience and Critical Carbon Level under Different Cropping Systems in Semi-Arid Tropical Alfisol Soils

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Authors

Uttam Kumar Mandal
ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Canning Town, South 24-Parganas 743 329, India
K. L. Sharma
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
K. Venkanna
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
Pushpanjali
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
Ravikant V. Adake
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
Rahul N. Masane
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
J. V. N. S. Prasad
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
G. Venkatesh
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India
Srinivasa Rao
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500 059, India

Abstract


Subsistence agriculture practice and a combination of harsh climate and fragile soils along with increasing demographic pressure are matters of great concern from the viewpoint of resource management and longterm sustainability in the semi-arid tropical Alfisol soils of India. In this study, soil quality index (SQI) has been computed on 190 sites of farmers' fields in southern India to evaluate the possible effect of land management practices on soil degradation and determine the critical levels of soil organic C stock to maintain a desirable SQI and also suggest appropriate management practices. In all, 26 predominant physical, chemical and biological properties of soils were studied and based on principal component analysis, moisture retention at field capacity, available soil N, available P, DTPA-extractable Zn, exchangeable sodium percentage, C-mineralization and bulk density were identified as the key indicators of the study region. SQI was also computed using four soil functions, viz. nutrient cycling, availability of water, resistance of soil to degradation, and salinity and sodicity. Soil resilience index was computed using data on substrateinduced respiration after exposing the soil to heat stress. SQI was highest under paddy followed by permanent fallow, maize, cotton, intercropping, redgram, and was lowest under castor system. Based on the results, it was observed that the soils which had higher SQI were also productive and they exhibited higher resilience capacity. An amount of 8.6 Mg ha-1 soil organic C stock per 15 cm depth was found essential to maintain soil quality and 2.2 Mg ha-1 of organic matter was needed every year to maintain this stock. On-farm participatory research trial was conducted using SQI as a tool for sustainable land-management practices.

Keywords


Cropping Systems, Organic Carbon Stock, Soil Quality and Resilience, Sustainable Land Management.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv112%2Fi09%2F1882-1895