Indian Journal of Plant and Soil

The Ananthapuramu district in Andhra Pradesh is predominantly characterized by dryland agriculture, primarily cultivating three key crops: groundnut, pigeon pea and cotton. This approach to farming often overlooks the land’s carrying capacity, which can result in soil degradation and a swift decline in soil fertility. The focus of soil fertility assessment and land management in this region is to analyze the soil resource database, identifying both biophysical constraints and opportunities to enhance agricultural productivity and soil health, particularly in the context of fluctuating rainfall patterns. This research employs an exploratory methodology, utilizing soil analytical data from the prevalent soil series. The weighted averages of each soil series were calculated, taking into account various pedogenic properties such as particle size distribution, pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon content, calcium carbonate levels, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable bases, base saturation, and soil depth. The soils in this area were typically featured clay-rich sub soils, particularly in granitic terrains, exhibiting slightly acidic to neutral pH levels, high cation exchange capacity, and gravelly profiles. However, these soils displayed poor structural stability and have low to moderate fertility indices, indicative of significant organic carbon depletion. The findings revealed a dichotomy in soil fertility across the research area, with some regions classified as high fertility and others as low. The latter included land units situated on steep slopes and lacking effective land management practices. Key limiting factors affecting soil fertility were texture, organic carbon content, cation exchange capacity, phosphorus, and total potassium levels. It is recommended that organic fertilizers can be applied to enhance the fertility of these farming areas.

Leaf spot of spinach caused by sp. is foliar disease and found to be present in different growth stages of the crop. In view to check the increasing pesticidal hazards and also, as under natural farming it is mandatory to use the on farm inputs and to avoid the use of off farm inputs. So, there was a strong need felt to evaluate the efficacy of Jeevamrut as there is lack of scientific evidence in support of this aspect, one ITK-Jeevamrut was chosen for development of effective management strategy of the disease. Jeevamrut at three different concentrations, Jeevamrut-1, Jeevamrut-2, Jeevamrut-3 and constituents of Jeevamrut viz., cow dung (2.5 and 7.5 percent), cow urine (2.5 and 7.5 percent), chickpea flour (1 %) and jaggery (1 %) were assessed against in pot condition by spray applications for management of this disease. Out of different organic inputs evaluated as spray applications for management of Cercospora leaf spot of spinach, foliar spray of Jeevamrut-2 was found effective to manage the disease with 73.69 PEDC followed by Jeevamrut-1 with PEDC 67.17 percent.

Soil plays an important role in landslide studies. Various parameters of the soil help to evaluate the extent of soil degradation leading to soil erosion and subsequently slide down. Itanagar Capital Complex (ICC) of the State of Arunachal Pradesh experiences a number of landslides, hence, soils of this place have been studied. The soils of Itanagar Capital Complex, have been analysed in terms of the morphological, physical and chemical properties. It led to identify twelve soil series with relation to nine landforms. Each soil series has been given a ‘Landslide Index’ on the basis of soil properties, slope, erosion and proneness to landslides. The landslide index grades soil-site characteristic within a range of 0 to 100, where the minimum value (0) shows no risk and the maximum value (100) indicates highest degree of proneness to landslides. Soil series with respect to their land capability classification revealed that most of the twelve soil series fall under Class VII category, though a few individual soil sites fall under other land capability classes, viz. Class III, Class VI, and Class VIII.