Main Article Content

Abstract

Soil quality degradation is a major threat to any agricultural production system. Therefore periodical monitoring of soil quality status is inevitable for sustainable management of agricultural production systems. Though there are various methods available to assess the soil quality, simple and management oriented methods are necessary. The current investigation aimed to evaluate soil quality of tribal areas of central India adopting minimum dataset of 15 soil physical, chemical and biological parameters. A novel scoring technique was followed to score soil quality indicators based on its relation with crop yield, degree of variation and percent deficiency. Relative soil quality index (RSQI) was calculated and was correlated with crop productivity. Most of the soils in the region had poor soil quality (77.2% in Jhabua, 85.4% in Alirajpur and 67.2% in Dhar) with low crop yield. The major constraints of crop production in these areas were low soil organic carbon (<0.5%), available N (<280 kg ha-1), S (<10 mg kg-1), P (<10 kg ha-1), Zn (<0.5 mg kg-1), dehydogenase activity (10 ?g TPF g-1 24 h-1) and soil depth (<1 m). Adopting sustainable management practices could improve soil quality and crop productivity. This new approach is simple and systematic; this principle can be easily adoptable to other locations, and principally focuses on management related and soil parameters that constraint to production and ecological functions.

Keywords

Minimum Data Set (MDS) Relative Yield (RY) Soil Quality Assessment Soil Quality Index (SQI) Sustainable Soil Management Tribal Area

Article Details

Author Biographies

Mohan Lal Dotaniya, Division of Environmental Soil Science

Scientist, Division of Environmental Soil Science, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

M Vassanda Coumar, Division of Environmental Soil Science

Scientist, Division of Environment Soil Science, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

Samaresh Kundu, Division of Environmental Soil Science

Division of Environmental Soil Science, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

Nishant Kumar Sinha, Division of Soil Physics

Scientist, Division of Soil Physics, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

A.K. Tripathi, Division of Soil Biology

Principal Scientist, Division of Soil Biology, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

Sanjay Srivastava, Division of Soil Chemistry and Fertility

Principal Scientist, Division of Soil Chemistry and Fertility, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

J.K. Saha, Division of Environmental Soil Science, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), India

Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Environmental Soil Science, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

A.K. Patra, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), India

Director, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal

How to Cite
Selladurai, R. S., Dotaniya, M. L. ., Vassanda Coumar, M., Kundu, S., Sinha, N. K., Tripathi, A., Srivastava, S., Saha, J., & Patra, A. . (2021). A novel soil quality assessment method for sustainable soil management and enhancing crop productivity in tribal areas of central India. Environment Conservation Journal, 22(3), 315–325. https://doi.org/10.36953/ECJ.2021.22337

References

  1. Andrews,S.S., Karlen,D.L., &Cambardella,C.A.(2004). The soil management assessment framework: A quantitative soil quality evaluation method. Soil ScienceSociety America Journal,68:1945-1962. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2004.1945
  2. Baveye,P.C., Baveye,J.,&Gowdy, J. (2016)). Soil “ecosystem” services and natural capital: critical appraisal of research on uncertain ground. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 4:1-49. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2016.00041
  3. Brussaard,L.(2012).Ecosystem services provided by the soil biota. In. D.H.Wall, R.D.Bardgett, V.Behan-Pelletier, J.E.Herrick, H.Jones, K.Ritz, J.Six, D.R.Strong, &W.H. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575923.003.0005
  4. van der Putten (eds.), Soil Ecology and Ecosystem Services, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK., pp: 45-58.
  5. Bunemann,E.K., Bongiorno,G., Bai,Z., Creamer,R.E., De Deyn,G., De Goede,R., Fleskens,L., Geissen,V., Kuyper,T.W., Mader,P., Pulleman,M., Sukkel,W., Groenigen,J.W.V., &Brussaard, L.(2018). Soil quality – A critical review. Soil Biology and Biochemisstry, 120:105-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2018.01.030
  6. Hillel,D.(2003).Introduction to Environmental Soil Physics, first ed. Academic Press, London.
  7. Kundu,S., Vassanda Coumar,M., Saha,J.K., Rajendiran,S., Hati,K.M., Biswas,A.K., Reddy,K. S., &Subba Rao,A.(2012). Assessing soil health of vertisol of AESR10.1 using selected physical, chemical and biological attributes of soils. Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science, 60:281-287.
  8. Lal,R.(2004). Soil carbon sequestration impacts on global climate change and food security. Science, 304:1623-11627. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1097396
  9. Mahajan,G., Das,B., Morajkar,S., Desai,A., Murgaokar,D., Kulkarni,R., Sale,R., & Patel,K. (2020). Soil quality assessment of coastal salt-affected acid soils of India.Environment Science and Pollution Research,27:26221-26238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09010-w
  10. Masto,R.E., Chhonkar,P.K., Singh,D., &Patra, A.K. (2008).Alternative soil quality indices for evaluating the effect of intensive cropping, fertilisation and manuring for 31 years in the semi-arid soils of India. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment,136:419-435. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-9697-z
  11. NAAS. (2017).Mitigating Land Degradation due to Water Erosion. Policy Paper No. 88 National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.
  12. NAAS. (2012).Sustaining Agricultural Productivity through IntegratedSoil Management. Policy Paper No. 56, National Academy ofAgricultural Sciences, New Delhi.
  13. NAAS. (2006).Low and Declining Crop Response to Fertilizers. Policy Paper No. 35, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.
  14. Nayak ,A.K., Shahid,M., Nayak,A.D.,Dhal,B., Moharana,K.C., Mondal,B., Tripathi,R., Mohapatra,S.D., Bhattacharyya,P., Jambhulkar, N.N., Shukla, A.K., Fitton ,N., Smith, P., &Pathak,H. (2019). Assessment of ecosystem services of rice farms in eastern India. Ecological Processes, 8:35-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13717-019-0189-1
  15. Parker,F.W., Nelson,W.L., Eric,W., &Miller,I.E. (1951). The broad interpretation of soil test information. Agronomy Journal, 43:105-102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj1951.00021962004300030001x
  16. Shukla,A. K., &Behera,S.K.(2012).Micronutrient fertilizers and higher productivity. Indian Journal of Fertilisers, 8:100-117.
  17. Singh,A.K. (2007). Evaluation of soil quality under integrated nutrient management. Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science, 55:58-61.
  18. Srinivasarao,CH., Venkateswarlu,B., Lal,R., Singh, A.K., & Kundu,S. (2013). Sustainable management of soils of dryland ecosystems of India for enhancing agronomic productivity and sequestering carbon. Advances in Agronomy, 121:253-329. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407685-3.00005-0
  19. Vasu,D., Singh,S.K., Ray,S.K., Duraisami,V.P., Tiwary,P., Chandran,P., Nimkar, A.M.&Anantwar,S.G.(2016).Soil quality index (SQI) as a tool to evaluate crop productivity in semi-arid Deccan plateau, India. Geoderma,282:70-79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.07.010
  20. Velayutham, M., Mandal, D.K.,Mandal C., & Sehgal, J. (1999). Agro-Ecological Sub-Regions of India for Planning and Development. ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur.
  21. Wang, X.J. &Gong, Z.T. (1998). Assessment and analysis of soil quality changes after eleven years of reclamation in subtropical China. Geoderma,81:339-355. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7061(97)00109-2