Five pedons (P) were evaluated for their suitability to maize as alternate crop for the existing dominant rice crop at water scarce condition by variation in physiography, parent materials, and soil nutrients in Ponnaniyar basin. The pedons had the parent materials of non-calcareous gneiss with feldspar (P1), granite and feldspar intermingled (P2), weathered gneiss (P3), weathered quartz and felspatic gneiss (P4) and gneiss with lime (P5) with soil orders of Vertisol (P3, P5), Inceptisol (P1, P2) and Alfisol (P4). The soils were low, medium and high in available N, P and K status respectively. Based on the soil analytical report suitability of maize was established. Kunnatur, Eliyattur and Tiruchengodu series are moderately suitable (S2) for maize cultivation. Whereas, Manapparai and Pilamedu series are highly suitable (S1) for maize cultivation. Also, based on the soil fertility data, the map was generated using-the software Arc GIS 10.1 with the help of GPS information for future reference.

Soil texture is a vital variable that reflects a number of soil properties such as Bulk Density, Particle Density, Infiltration Rate, Hydraulic conductivity, Water holding capacity, nutrient storage and availability as well as transport and binding and stability of soil aggregates. For better tuber development in cassava soil texture plays vital role.  The main objective of this study is to produce kriged maps (Ordinary kriging map and semivariogram) to interpolate the soil texture for Tapioca growing soils of Paramthy block, Namakkal District at unsampled locations. In this study, nearly 54 surface samples were collected covering 19,149 ha of agriculture land with dominant cultivation of Tapioca. This study helps spatial interpolation of unsampled location of soil texture i.e. sand, silt and clay content which rules the soil physical, chemical and hydrological properties. The average standard error for sand and clay are 0.2 and 0.19 respectively. The results such as provided maps and their associated variance can be used as data source for the development and implementation of further land management and soil water conservation plans in the study area.

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Background: Cluster bean was cultivated as a catch crop without external fertilization, solely to recharge the soil fertility and to harvest the residual nutrient after maize crop; clusterbean had been included as a succeeding crop. Doubling the fertilizer for maize would leave more residues. Even though maize is an exhaustive crop, since the nutrient uptake was need based, the excess fertilizers were effectively utilized by cluster bean. Methods: A field research was carried out at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore under irrigated conditions. Experimental trials were adopted to estimate the effect of high density with nutrient management practices on maize which influences the performance of succeeding cluster bean under maize-cluster bean cropping sequence during Rabi seasons of 2017-18 and 2018-19 by using cultivar Pusa Naubahar. No separate treatments were adapted to cluster bean crop. Result: The results of cluster bean sown after the high density of 1,33,333 plants ha-1 maize with nutrient level of 200 per cent RDF produced taller plants, higher drymatter production (636 and 607 kg/ha), increased yield attributes, higher yield (6.58 and 6.81 t/ha) and better economics (B:C ratio -1.87 and 1.94) in both the seasons. Post-harvest available nutrient status revealed that the higher population by closer spacing with increased fertilizer levels (T7) maintained its superiority during both the years. Moreover, this proved to be the most viable practice for production and residual nutrient uptake, by including pulse (cluster bean) as succeeding crop and soil health was effectively maintained by fixing atmospheric nitrogen by cluster bean.