Abstract
A major portion of the area under cassava in India is under irrigated Vertisols, and the farmers face a number of soil-related constraints which significantly reduce the tuberous root yield of cassava. In order to reclaim these arid lands and to increase the yield and profitability of farmers, farmer-friendly technologies have been developed based on field experiments conducted during the past 7 years since 2003. Three different on-farm experiments were conducted to study these problems and to develop a sustainable reclamation strategy. Major components of the technology include adoption of deep tillage with a chisel plough, application of neem cake, application of biofertilizers such as N fixer, P-solubilizing bacteria and AM fungi and biocontrol agents like Trichoderma and Pseudomonas. Besides this, a balanced fertilization schedule based on site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) approach have also been developed to address the problems due to imbalance in nutrient applications by farmers in those arid environments. Studies have shown that these technologies have resulted in significant increase in tuberous root yield and income of farmers besides improving soil health and soil quality.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Al-Tahan YH, Hassam HM, Hamadi IM (1992) Agricultural management in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Indian J Agric Sci 23:21–27
Barzegar AR, Asoodar MA, Khadish A, Hashemi AM, Herbert SJ (2003) Soil physical characteristics and chickpea yield responses to tillage treatments. Soil Till Res 71:49–57
Buol SW, Hole FD, McCracken RJ (1980) Soil genesis and classification. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co Ltd, New Delhi
Byju G, Anand MH (2009a) Differential response of short- and long-duration cassava cultivars to applied mineral nitrogen. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 172(4):572–576
Byju G, Anand MH (2009b) Leaf color chart and chlorophyll meter based leaf nitrogen estimation and their critical values for real time nitrogen management in cassava. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 40:2816–2832
Byju G, Ravindran CS, Nedunchezhiyan M (2006) Site specific nutrient management as a precision farming tool for cassava cultivation in Tamil Nadu, India. Abstract of papers: 14th Triennial symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops, Mascot Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 20–26 Nov 2006, pp 185–186
Byju G, Misra RS, Nair RR (2008a) Soil health, cassava yield and nutrient uptake as influenced by different biofertilizers and biocontrol agents in a Vertisol in India. Global cassava partnership: first scientific meeting GCP-1. Cassava-meeting the challenges of the new millennium, Ghent, Belgium, 20–25 July 2008
Byju G, Nedunchezhiyan M, Ramanandam G (2008b) Soil fertility research for cassava in India. 8th Asian Cassava Research Workshop, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 20–24 Oct 2008
CTCRI (2005) Annual report 2004–2005. Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, p 62
Fageria NK, Baligar VC, Jones CA (1991) Growth and mineral nutrition of field crops. Marcel Dekker, New York
Hall DJM, McKenzie DC, MacLeod DA, Toolt ID (1994) Amelioration of a hard setting Alfisol through deep mould board ploughing, gypsum application and double cropping. II. Soil water relations. Soil Till Res 28:271–285
Hamza MA, Anderson WK (2005) Soil compaction in cropping systems: a review of the nature, causes and possible solutions. Soil Till Res 82:121–145
Haripriya AM, Byju G (2008) Chlorophyll meter and leaf color chart to estimate chlorophyll content, leaf color and yield of cassava. Photosynthetica 46(4):511–516
Janssen BH, Guiking FCT, Van der ED, Smaling EMA, Wolf J, Reuler H (1990) A system for quantitative evaluation of fertility of tropical soils (QUEFTS). Geoderma 46:299–318
Jarvis RJ, Hamblin AP, Delroy ND (1986) Continuous cereal cropping with alternative tillage systems in Western Australia. Technical Bulletin no. 71. Western Australian Department of Agriculture, Perth, p 37
Randall GW, Iragavarappa TK (1995) Impact of long term tillage systems for continuous corn on nitrate leaching to tile drainage. J Environ Qual 24:360–366
Savithri P, Santhy P (2001) Nutrient mining in the agro-climatic zones of Tamil Nadu. Fertil News 46(8):59–68
Soane BD, Ouwerkerk C (1995) Implications of soil compaction in crop production for the quality of the environment. Soil Till Res 35:5–22
Soil Survey Staff (2010) Keys to soil taxonomy, 11th edn. United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC
Systat (1992) Systat software. Systat Inc., Evanston
Witt C, Dobermann A, Abdulrachman S, Gines HC, Guanghuo W, Nagarajan R, Satawatananount S, Son TH, Tan PS, Van Tiem L, Simbahan GC, Olk DC (1999) Internal nutrient efficiencies of irrigated lowland rice in tropical and subtropical Asia. Field Crops Res 63:113–138
Yadav BL, Vyas KK (2006) Influence of subsoil compaction on recovery and use efficiency of nitrogen in wheat crop on highly permeable soils. J Indian Soc Soil Sci 54:158–162
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Byju, G., Misra, R.S., Nair, R.R., Anand, M.H., Jeeva, M.L., Ravindran, C.S. (2013). Reclamation of Degraded Vertisols Under Cassava in Arid Environments of India. In: Shahid, S., Abdelfattah, M., Taha, F. (eds) Developments in Soil Salinity Assessment and Reclamation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5684-7_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5684-7_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5683-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5684-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)