A Comparison on soil biological health on continuous organic and inorganic farming

Abstract

To understand the soil health under continuous cultivation after using organic and chemical inputs, a survey was conducted under Uttarakhand, Navdanya farm areas, where farmers was selected who were practicing both chemical and organic inputs under different crops at least more than 5 years. The effect of most important crops growing under Uttarakhand i.e wheat, potato, garlic, mustard, chick pea, chilli and pumpkin was taken into consideration. The results clearly suggested that a significant decline in most important soil enzyme activities like dehydrogenase, esterase, acid and alkaline phosphatase under chemical farming as compared to organic farming. The microbial population especially fungi, bacteria, actinomycetes, azotobacter and nitrosomonas was significantly higher under organic farming areas than chemical farming. The results clearly showed that organic farming has a great role to maintain excellent microbial and enzyme activities resulted better soil health status.