Dr R D Gupta
Owing to the paucity of water available for irrigating the crops, the farmers of the Kandi belt of Jammu as well as those of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab practise rainfed agriculture. As a result the productivity of various crops is very-very low. Sometimes due to untimely and erratic monsoon the yield becomes so poor that even the cost of inputs incurred can not be met with. Moreover, the soils of the area are low in soil fertility, especially organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus content. Due to low amount of organic carbon the soils are low in water retention capacity and cation exchange capacity. Moreover, micronutrients deficiency, particularly of zinc, copper and manganese, has also been noticed in these soils. Hence, it is not surprising to say that the soils of Kandi belt are not only “thirsty but hungry too”. In view of the above, it therefore becomes imperative to follow the certain scientific management practices, which can enhance crop productivity of this area. There are two types of such practices viz., land management practices and crop management practices. These are briefly described here as under.
Land Management
Man’s economic and social progress mostly depends upon land resources. Land resources which constitute of soil, water, natural vegetation, minerals etc., are transformed into economics goods by the services of his labour. But land’s resources are relatively scarce and it depends upon how he makes their best use. In agriculture, the best use of land can be done by management or managing its soils and cropping pattern or cropping sequence.
Management of soils
Soil management becomes an integral part of land management as the very existence of the peasant relies upon the soil for the production of material to be used by him for food and clothing, and in part for fuel and shelter. The domestic animals also very much depend up on soil for their feed and fodder. It is, thus, obvious that wise management of the soil is related to the well being not only of the peasant, but also of whole of the mankind.
The central idea of soil management is to maintain the soil fertility, i.e., the available plant nutrients, which have been removed by the crops and lost through soil erosion and other losses, have to be compensated to the soil in almost equivalent loss. The soil fertility can be ameliorated by adopting following practices.
Addition of organic manures: Continuous cropping of cereals and millets without periodical addition of organic manures (farm-yard manure, compost) and/or neglecting the growing of leguminous crops is the most wasteful method of our farming, leading to soil exhaustion.
Under integrated nutrient management experiment, it has been found that addition of 10 tonnes of farm yard manure alone can increase the yield of maize and wheat by 26.4 to 77.0 and 25.6 to 48.8 per-cent, respectively. The increase in these crops was still more when farm yard manure was applied with nitrogenous , phosphatic and potassic fertilizers.
The results of a number of “on farm testing (OFTS)” conducted at various locations of Kandi belt of Jammu on maize under Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu (SKAUST-J), showed that when farm yard manure was applied along with nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic fertilizers there was an improvement in its yield.
Green manuring: Since the soils of Kandi Belt are very poor in organic carbon usually less than 0.5 per-cent or even less than this figure, doing of green manuring with dhaincha (Sesbania aculeata) or senhemp (Crotolaria juncea) has proved beneficial in improving their organic carbon status. Green manuring practice not only enhances organic carbon status of these soils but also supplies other available plant nutrients.
In this practice, the green manure crop is grown with 70 kg diammonium phosphate. The crop is sown immediately after first showers of monsoon and buried into the soil prior to its flowering stage, which usually takes about 40-45 days after sowing. This practice helps in increasing about 30 per-cent wheat yield without supplying any additional fertilizers to this crop.
Green manuring in a particular area can be adopted for three consecutive years and the farmers can earmark the area in every Kharif season accordingly.
Recycling of organic residues: Recycling studies on cereal and legume residues revealed that there was significant increase in the yield of wheat and maize. There was net saving of about 50 per-cent of nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic fertilizers when 5 tonnes/ha legume residues were incorporated.
The highest maize yield (35.29 q ha ¹) was recorded when 25 per cent nitrogen requirement was fulfilled with leaves of Leucaena leucocephala having 3 per-cent nitrogen along with the application of 25 per cent nitrogen through urea as basal dose and rest of the nitrogen was applied as top dressing through urea.
The yield of maize obtained by applying one-fourth nitrogen through Leucaena leucocephala leaves and the remaining three-fourth through urea as top dressing, and three-fourth nitrogen through Leucaena leucocephala leaves as basal and the remaining 25 per-cent nitrogen through urea as top dressing gave the yield of 30.7 and 28.0 q ha’ which were significantly different.
Control of soil and water erosion: As whole of the Kandi belt suffers badly from soil erosion due to massive deforestation and denudation, so it must be checked. For this purpose, all possible measures i.e. agronomical, biological and mechanical must be adopted.
Mechanical measures mostly consist of land shaping through suitable terracing and graded contour bunding so that soil and water may store instead of running through the fields. Gully erosion can be controlled by building strong check dams at suitable intervals.
The agronomical measures comprise adopting of strip cropping, mixed and intercropping where erosion permitting crop like maize is alternated with erosion resistant crop like pulse (mash -black gram). Rotations and mulches are the other suitable measures which include in agronomical measures.
Reafforestation, planting of grasses, maintenance of vegetative covers and closures, are some of the techniques belonging to biological control. All these control measures have been detailed separately in “Soil Erosion and Water Conservation”
Removal of soil barrenness: The most common causes of soil barrenness are salinity i.e. presence of soluble salts (SO4, NO3, Cl, HCO3), occurrence of too much of any one of mechanical components (sand, silt or clay), calcareousness or lime and lime concretions, deficiency of some plant nutrients and shallowness of the soil resting either on a rock or unsuitable subsoil.
In Kandi area, salinity, calcareousness and coarseness of the soil are of frequent occurrence here and there. Application of gypsum to reclaim salinity is not possible in the area afflicted with this problem due to paucity of water. When gypsum is applied as an amendment to reclaim salinity of any particular field, it requires lot of water to leach down the salts. Therefore, salt tolerant trees and grasses should be grown in such areas of the Kandi belt.For this purposes, the trees like kikar (Acacia nilotica), phulai (Acacia modestd), khair (Acacia catechu), and shrubs like Saccharum munja have proved useful in reclaiming the salinity. This not only would make use of alkaline soils but also add organic matter. Addition of organic matter will eventually improve the texture of the soil due to production of organic acids during its decomposition.
(The author is Ex-Associate Dean Cum Chief Scientist KVK-Jammu, SKUAST-J)
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