Indian Journal of Plant and Soil

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.: Family: Piperaceae) the king of spices, associated with the history of Tamil kingdoms in the past and valued for pungency and medicinal properties is a perennial vine originated from monsoon tracks of Western Ghats. There is stagnation in the area of its cultivation and the productivity level so far realized is far below the theoretical potential achievable for the agro climatic conditions of the regions where it is cultivated. This could be due to challenges faced in its cultivation as a commercial crop, particularly in sustaining high productivity to stay economically viable. An effort is made to grasp the role of growth determinants, soil, water, nutrients and climate, in chasing productivity and the ways to manage them to achieve sustainable productivity.

Keywords: Pepper agronomy; Productivity constraints; Pruning and training vines.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the most important indicator of soil quality and agricultural sustainability. It an important constituent describing soil fertility/soil health and contributes to macro and micronutrients turnover. In arid and semiarid region, there is a rapid decline of soil organic carbon levels with continuous cultivation and less or negligible use of organic manure. Decline of organic carbon stock in the soil affects soil fertility status and climate change regulation capacity. Accordingly, decreasing level of SOC in soil creates widening of nutrient deficiency specially N across the worldwide and other nutrients. Negligible use of organic manures, green manure and extensive tillage usually expose surface soil to water loss; and favour the breakdown of SOC into carbon dioxide. Resultant decline in SOC encourages poor water holdings of soil, encourages nutrient leaching and global warming. All these changes are responsible for decline in the potential productivity of a soil. Soil productivity is closely linked to soil organic matter (SOM) and its primary component soil organic carbon (SOC). To maintain food production for a rapidly growing population, application of mineral fertilizers and the effective recycling of organic amendments such as crop residues and manures are essential especially in the smallholder farming systems that rely predominantly on organic residues to maintain soil fertility.

Keywords: Soil organic carbon; Soil quality; Climate change; Management.

Time-line of the development of Baule concept is traced. Baule concept is a useful tool to understand the interaction of nutrients in deciding the ultimate productivity achievable. Its’ usefulness is brought out thru a analysis of fertilizer trials in tea.

Keywords: Baule concept, Units and equivalents.

Field experiment was carried out during spring season of 2013 at the N.E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) to study the effect of production factors for efficient and economic use of limited resources for optimizing sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) production. The soil of experimental site was sandy loam in texture having pH 6.98, organic carbon 0.72%, available N 230 kg/ ha, P 18.8 kg/ha and K 255.8 kg/ha. Among the absence of single production factor, plant protection was found the most crucial production factor for sunflower production with reduction of 32.9% in seed yield followed by weeding with 23.2% in spring season in Tarai zone of India while other factors like fertilizer and thinning were equally important as these factors may reduce 20-23% sunflower seed yield alone. Similarly in absence of two production factors, fertilizer + plant protection had the highest seed yield reduction followed by plant protection + thinning. Therefore the plant protection and fertilizer management need special care for boosting sunflower production in spring season in India.

Keywords: Production factors; Sunflower; Plant Protection; Thinning; Weeding.

The present study was taken up on Alluvial soils of Varanasi to evaluate the effect of organics with chemical fertilizer on growth and yield in rice-wheat cropping sequence. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with nine treatments with three replications. Treatments consists of control (no fertilizer), 100% NPK and combinations of 70% NPK with different organics viz., FYM, pressmud and vermicompost were applied on nitrogen basis (36 kg). The results reveal that highest plant height of rice and wheat at 90 DAT (122.9, 96.67 cm), number of tillers per meter row length (77.53, 156.84), chlorophyll content at 60 DAT (39.67, 38.54 SPAD), number of grains per panicle (45.03, 67.12), test weight (23.02, 37.51g), grain yield (47.78, 41.63 q ha-1) and straw yield (72.78, 65.47 q ha-1) was found from T8 (70% NPK + 15% N by FYM and 15% by pressmud) and closely followed by T7 (70% NPK + 15% N by vermicompost and 15% by pressmud). Among the organics, pressmud reported higher in all above parameters. The 100% NPK recorded significantly lower as compared to T8 and control plot recorded lowest value of all above parameters. The study showed that integrated use of organics with fertilizer produced higher and sustainable yield of rice and wheat.

Keywords: Growth; Yield; Organics; Fertilizer; Rice and wheat.

A field experiment was carried out in 15 year old tamarind plantation at Chinnakupam village, Harur taluk, Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu. The tamarind trees were managed with different pruning intensities viz., 15 per cent pruning, 30 per cent pruning, 50 per cent pruning and control for enhancing the flowering and fruiting in Tamarind. The maximum tamarind fruit yield was recorded in T2 (30% pruning) with the value of 39 kg./tree followed by T3-50 per cent pruning (21 kg./tree) and the minimum fruit yield of 14 kg./tree was recorded in T 4 (Control). To conclude the study, the management of canopy with 30 per cent pruning had a significant increase in the tamarind fruit yield.

Keywords: Tamarind; Canopy management; Pruning intensities; Fruit Yield; Seed raised plantation.

The land suitability evaluation was a spatial excercise to generate biophysical suitability for cropping systems on judging soil - climate - landscape systems and linked with to the individual polygons of (1 : 25 000 scale) soil map available for Pulivendula tehsil. Aridity is a recurring phenomena with serious economic loss in Pulivendula of Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh where the rainfed groundnut yields are historically less than 400 kg/ha. The soil map with 43 soil series association showed that 38% of area is under hills and ridges with soil cover of inceptisols (46%), vertisols (13%), alfisols (5%) and entisols (4%) having slightly to moderately alkaline with low salt concentration (mean EC <0.5 dSm-1), high ESP (> 7.61% in case of soils on shale) and moderately deep (mean of 97.81cm) to very deep as compared to soils on quartzite (mean of 30.75 cm). These soils were evaluated as weakly susceptible to water erosion covering 29037 hectares (K < 0.20). The appraisal of suitable lands for groundnut showed that 42% of total cropped area is moderately suitable but extensively sprawled in Vempalli (6894 ha, 27.39% of cultivated area) and Vemula (3613ha, 17.29% of cultivated area). The agroeconomic analysis further showed that 13.94% of lands have benefit cost ratio less than I due to seasonal aridity and creating panic among groundnut growers. These findings illustrate a possible scenario for groundnut cultivation in the event of increasing aridity and impacting crop management practices in the region

Keywords: Aridity index; Angot index; Benefit-cost ratio; Land evaluation; Soil mapping unit; Pulivendula.