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Soil Health Improvement with Gliricidia Green Leaf Manuring in Rainfed Agriculture:On Farm Experiences

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/5534/
 
Title Soil Health Improvement with Gliricidia Green Leaf Manuring in Rainfed Agriculture:On Farm Experiences
 
Creator Srinivasa Rao, Ch
et al, .
 
Subject Soil Science
Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description Enrichment of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks through sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in agricultural
soils is important because of its impacts on soil health, agronomic production, as well as adaptation and
mitigation of climate change. A high SOC concentration can be achieved through the adoption of appropriate
crop rotations, integrated nutrient management systems and conservation agriculture practices. In arid and
semi-arid regions, crop productivity is strongly influenced by soil fertility and moisture retention capacity.
Therefore, restoring soil health and enhancing SOC stocks are essential for improving and sustaining agronomic
productivity.
In India, rainfed cropping is practiced on 80 Mha in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid climatic zones,
constituting nearly 60% of the net cultivated area. These regions are characterized by erratic rainfall, degraded
soils, poor infrastructure and tropical or subtropical environments where ambient temperature rises frequently
above 40-4SoC in summer. The magnitude of change in SOC due to continuous cultivation depends on the
balance between the loss of C by oxidation and erosion, the quantity and quality of crop residues returned and
additional biomass C added to the soils. Therefore, crop and soil management practices must be designed to
ensure sustainability of long term cropping systems. There are several strategies to improve soil carbon status.
Gliricidia green leaf manuring is one of the important strategies that improves soil organic carbon, adds soil
nutrients, enhances soil moisture storage as a consequence of which the crops can cope with intermittent
droughts, as well as biological health of the soil. I congratulate the authors for documenting this commendable
action research that focused on promoting Gliricidia green leaf manuring on farmers fields in degraded lands in 8 rain£ed tribal districts of Andhra Pradesh and several other regions. This bulletin will be of immense use
to field level workers, administrators, policy makers etc for promoting Gliricidia leaf manuring on farm bunds
and waste lands and on-farm generation of organic matter to improve soil health and sustainability of rainfed
systems in India.
 
Publisher Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture
 
Date 2011
 
Type Monograph
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/5534/1/Soil%20Health%20Improvemet_with_Gliricidi_2011.pdf
Srinivasa Rao, Ch and et al, . (2011) Soil Health Improvement with Gliricidia Green Leaf Manuring in Rainfed Agriculture:On Farm Experiences. Documentation. Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, India.