Title: Alleviating Soil Physical Constraints for Sustainable Crop Production through Tillage, Soil Amendment and Crop Residue Management
Abstract: The alleviation of soil physical constraints limiting crop production is considered important to increase agricultural production and sustaining the productivity of soils. The results of several field experiments conducted during the last two and a half decades to identify soil physical constraints in the state of Haryana (India) and to generate different technologies for their management are discussed. The major soil physical constraints found to impair soil quality and hence reduce crop growth include high soil permeability, soil crusting, sub-surface mechanical impedance and soil hardening. Studies indicated that the compaction of highly permeable soils by six passes of 1,500 kg tractor driven iron roller reduced water and nutrient losses, increased moisture retention in the soil profile and reduced the irrigation requirements for crops. The yields of various crops were either increased or remained unaffected upon compaction. The application of farmyard manure (FYM) on seed lines at the rate of 4 t ha -1 as mulch reduced the adverse effect of surface soil crusting on crop establishment and increased the yields of pearl millet and cotton quite significantly. High sub-surface mechanical impedance was found to affect plant growth more in legumes than in cereals. In these soils, deep tillage was found to be very effective in reducing the bulk density in sub-soil, increasing infiltration rate and yield of wheat. Incorporation of sesbania as green manure and the application of FYM were found to be useful in reducing the nitrogen requirement and improving the soil physical conditions of soils that set hard upon wetting and are under rice-wheat cropping system. The yield of both the crops were found to be higher where crop residues were burnt in situ followed by residue incorporation with 25 per cent extra nitrogen.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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