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How fertile are semi-arid tropical soils?

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Title How fertile are semi-arid tropical soils?
 
Creator Sahrawat, Kanwar Lal
 
Subject organic carbon
sat
sat soils
farmers’ fields
fertility status
major and micronutrients
semiarid tropics
 
Description The semiarid
tropical (SAT) regions are notably characterized by low rainfall and high temperatures, and hence low natural primary
productivity and soil fertility. However, to adequately respond to the title of our article as to how fertile are SAT soils, there is a need to
critically review the current literature on the fertility status of SAT soils. Little attention has been paid in the past to determining the
fertility status of SAT soils supporting rainfed production systems despite the fact that the SAT soils are relatively fragile than their
irrigated counterparts; and this is due to their widespread degradation and lack of investment in building up the fertility. However, as in
the case of other agroecosystems, the soils in the SAT regions vary widely in various fertility parameters. For example, the results of
survey of large numbers of farmers’ fields in the SAT regions of India, by the ICRISAT and its partners, showed that they vary widely in
soil pH, salts (electrical conductivity, EC), organic C (an index of available N) and major (N and P), secondary (S) and micronutrients (B
and Zn) although the soils were low in organic C with widespread deficiencies of these nutrients. From the results discussed in this
article, it is concluded that in general, the soils in the SAT regions are low in fertility; however, they vary widely in various fertility
parameters.
 
Date 2016-05-10
2017-02-08T23:17:02Z
2017-02-08T23:17:02Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/9491
https://mel.cgiar.org/reporting/download/hash/InRA72yh
Kanwar Lal Sahrawat. (10/5/2016). How fertile are semi-arid tropical soils. Current Science, 110(9), pp. 1671-1674.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/5604
Open access
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-4.0
 
Format PDF
 
Publisher Indian Academy of Sciences
 
Source Current Science;110,(2016) Pagination 1671,1674