Alternative Sources of Soil Organic Amendments for Sustaining Soil Health and Crop Productivity in India – Impacts, Potential Availability, Constraints and Future Strategies

Abstract

Among the several causes, critical low soil organic matter status is predominant for decline in soil health and consequent fall in crop productivity. Over the years, availability of traditional source of soil organic amendment, viz. cattle manure drastically declined due to various reasons (domestic uses as fuel and plastering of the kachha houses). The present study highlights that there are many alternative sources of soil organic amendments available in the country which have tremendous potential to improve soil organic matter status and crop productivity, and rejuvenate and enhance the dying total factor productivity of Indian soils. Data from various sources reveal that about 300 million tonnes of alternative sources of soil organic amendments are available in the country. This study highlights that the application of alternative sources of organic amendments directly or indirectly improves soil health by influencing many soil properties (physical and chemical) and enzyme activities (biological) that regulate nutrient dynamics in the soil. Consequent upon improvement in soil environment, the application of alternative sources of soil organic amendments alone or along with recommended dose of fertilizers registered significantly higher yield in different crops across different agro-climatic conditions of the country. Composting and vermicomposting are the best strategies to convert the biomass of available alternative sources of organic amendments to plant nutrient-rich products.

Dismantling Barriers to Upscaling Agro-ecological Farming in India

“…It is also clear that the yield response to the application of increasingly more expensive chemical inputs is falling. Indoria et al (2018) show that the average crop response to fertilizer use has fallen from around 25 kg grain/kg of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) fertilizer during the 1960s to a mere 6 kg grain/kg NPK by 2010 (Figure 1). This has meant higher costs of cultivation without a corresponding rise in output, even as this intensified application of inputs compels farmers to draw more and more water from below the ground.…”

Symbiosis of Water and Agricultural Transformation in India

“…(Jepson et al, 2020) It is also clear that the yield response to the application of increasingly more expensive chemical inputs is falling. Indoria et al (2018) show that the average crop response to fertiliser use has fallen from around 25 kg grain/kg of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) fertiliser during the 1960s to a mere 6 kg grain/kg NPK by 2010 (Fig. 3).…”

Soil quality management through conservation agriculture and other practices for higher productivity in rainfed agriculture amidst climate change

“…Further, it has been reported that the addition of organic matter through farmyard manure and crop residues played a crucial role to determine the soil physical (Indoria et al 2016) and chemical and biological functional capacity of soil (Sharma et al 2017;Indoria et al 2018). It has also been well proved that the soil organic carbon significantly improved the physical soil quality parameters by supplying the organic matter, carbon and energy to various microbes, which secrete various enzymes and enhance soil aggregation and in-turn resulted in positive effect on various soil physical properties.…”