Land use and cropping effects on carbon in black soils of semi-arid tropical India | Land Portal

Resource information

Date of publication: 
May 2016
Resource Language: 
ISBN / Resource ID: 
mel:20.500.11766/5588

Soil organic carbon (SOC) and rainfall are generally
positively related, whereas a negative relationship
between soil inorganic carbon (SIC) and rainfall with
some exception is observed. Land use pattern in black
soil region (BSR) of the semi-arid tropical (SAT)
India, consists of 80% under agriculture, followed by
forest, horticulture, wasteland and permanent fallow.
For sustainable agriculture on these soils, there is a
concern about their low OC status, which warrants
fresh initiatives to enhance their OC status by suitable
management interventions. In the BSR region, cotton,
soybean and cereal-based systems dominate but it is
not yet clear as to which cropping system in the SAT
black soils is most suitable for higher OC sequestration.
Many short-term experiments on cotton or
cereal-based systems clearly suggest that cotton or
cereal-based cropping systems including leguminous
crops perform better in terms of SOC sequestration
whereas soybean–legume combination do not add any
substantial amount of OC. In sub-humid bioclimatic
zones (1053–1209 mm mean annual rainfall), soybean is
grown successfully with wheat or fallowing, and SOC
concentration is maintained at 0.75% in the 0.30 m soil
layer under integrated nutrient management. In view of
enhancement and maintenance of OC in many shortterm
experiments conducted in various agro-climate
zones of SAT, it is realized that OC accumulation in
soils of the semi-arid ecosystem with suitable cropping
and management practices could be substantial especially
in cotton–pigeon pea rotation, and thus the discussed
crop rotations in each major bio-climatic zone
stand for wide acceptance by the SAT farmers.

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Chaudhury, Swati
Bhattacharyya, Tapas
Wani, Suhas
Pal, Dilip Kumar
Sahrawat, Kanwar Lal
Nimje, A. M.
Chandran, P.
Venugopalan, M V
Telpande, B. A.

Publisher(s): 

Founded in 1934 by Sir C V Raman the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was registered as a Society on 27 April 1934 with the main objective of promoting the progress and upholding the cause of science. The Academy began functioning with 65 Founding Fellows and the formal inauguration took place at the Indian Institute of Science.

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