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Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University popularly known as HAU, is one of Asia's biggest agricultural universities, located at Hisar in the Indian state of Haryana. It is named after India's seventh Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh. It is a leader in agricultural research in India and contributed significantly to Green Revolution and White Revolution in India in the 1960s and 70s. It has a very large campus and has several research centres throughout the state. It won the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's Award for the Best Institute in 1997. HAU was initially a campus of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. After the formation of Haryana in 1966, it became an autonomous institution on February 2, 1970 through a Presidential Ordinance, later ratified as Haryana and Punjab Agricultural Universities Act, 1970, passed by the Lok Sabha on March 29, 1970. A. L. Fletcher, the first Vice-Chancellor of the university, was instrumental in its initial growth.

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Subject: Soil Science × End date: 2018 × Start date: 2018 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Evaluation of carbon stock potential as affected by cropping systems in soils of eastern Haryana
    (CCSHAU, 2018) Lamba, Shubham; Phogat, V.K.
    Maintenance of carbon stocks in agricultural soils to an optimum level is crucial for achieving food security and environmental quality. Carbon is continuously cycling between diverse global carbon pools, understanding the dynamics of soil organic carbon and its relation with farming practices is utmost important for management of soil organic carbon pools and sustainability in agricultural production systems. The availability of nutrients and organic carbon in soils of Haryana is depleted primarily because of exhaustive crops, chemical fertilizers, and poor management followed by less or no application of manures and organic amendments. Soils of Haryana have potential to sequester carbon in varying amounts depending upon the soil texture and cropping system adopted. Samples from the surface and sub-surface soils were collected with the help of handheld GPS from Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Panchkula, Jind, Kaithal, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Faridabad, Mewat, Palwal and Gurugram districts. The soil organic carbon (SOC) (3.53 g kg-1), soil organic carbon stock (SCS) (8.81 Mg ha-1 C) and carbon sequestration rate (0.88 Mg ha-1 C) were significantly higher under rice-wheat cropping system as compared to rest of the cropping systems. Likewise, the Microbial biomass carbon (MBC) (54.33 mg kg-1), light fraction carbon (LFC) (0.32 g kg-1), heavy fraction carbon (HFC) (0.98 g kg-1), coarse particulate organic carbon (cPOC) (0.26 g kg-1), fine particulate organic carbon (fPOC) (0.37 g kg-1), mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) (1.29 g kg-1) and dehydrogenase activity (DH) (5.878 μgTPF/g soil/24 h) were also significantly higher under rice-wheat cropping system. At various soil profile depths, the SOC (4.73 g kg-1), SCS (9.94 Mg ha-1 C), SCR (0.99 Mg ha-1 C), and carbon pools such as MBC (112.86 mg kg-1), LFC (0.43 g kg-1), HFC (1.38 g kg-1), cPOC (0.37 g kg-1), fPOC (0.49 g kg-1) and MAOC (1.96 g kg-1) were found significantly higher at surface 0-15 cm depth as compare to sub-surface soil depths. Nitrogen (217 kg ha-1), phosphorus (19.4 kg ha1), potassium (219 kg ha-1) were found significantly higher at the surface (0-15 cm) of rice-wheat cropping system. Among DTPA extractable micronutrients zinc (0.712 mg kg-1) was found significantly higher in cultivated fields of rice-wheat cropping systems whereas copper was found higher in cultivated fields of all cropping systems with significant differences. Higher values of bulk density (BD), pH and EC were observed in pearl millet-based cropping systems dominated by loamy sand texture. The relationship of SOC, SCS, SOC pools and different physicochemical properties showed both positive and negative correlation with the varying level of significance. The pH and EC were found most non-significant parameters when correlated with SOC, SCS, SOC pools and nutrients. The soils of the state have significantly lost SOC from cultivated fields and thus bears significant potential for carbon sequestration whereas rice-wheat cropping system is nearly saturated and possess very less or no potential to sequester carbon.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Impact of organic and conventional farming practices on soil quality
    (CCSHAU, 2018) Sheoran, Hardeep Singh; Phogat, V.K.
    Organic agricultural systems aim at reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in order to improve soil quality and food safety. Despite the integral role of the management practices in agricultural production, there is a limited understanding of the effects of organic farming system on soil properties for seeking as an alternative to the conventional practices. The impact of organic farming on soil quality in terms of changes in various soil properties as compared to conventional farming was evaluated. Surface soil samples were collected from organic farm under different cropping systems visa- vis agricultural and horticultural cropping systems and their adjoining conventional farms from 25 different locations in 11 districts of Haryana. The texture of soils at different locations varied between sand to clay loam, representing almost all the soil types of the state. The soil samples were analyzed for various soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Organic farming system decreased the bulk density of soils at majority of the locations. The average bulk density values of all the locations reduced significantly from 1.47 to 1.45 Mg m-3 under organic as compared to conventional farming system. The water stable aggregates (>0.25 mm), moisture content at field capacity and plant available water were found to increase. Shifting from conventional to organic farming had no effect on pH and EC but reduced the CaCO3 significantly.Organic farming significantly increased the SOC from 51% to 62% as a result of which the SCS increased from 11.17 to 13.29 Mg ha-1 over conventional farming. The magnitude of increase in LOC, POC and MOC was 48.9, 23.6 and 14.7 %, respectively. Different organic carbon pools in various fractions followed the order MOC > POC > LOC. In addition, an increase in macro and micro nutrients was also observed. The total bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes counts were increased by 56.9, 55.2 and 49.5%, respectively, than those in the conventionally managed soils. Overall, population of rhizobium, azotobacter, azospirillum and PSB increased significantly by 44.1, 39.0, 47.1 and 43.5%. Under organic farming, dehydrogenase activity, alkaline phosphatase activity and MBC increased by 57.5, 22.8 and 69.1 %, respectively, as compared to conventional farming system. It is concluded that the conversion of land from conventional to organic farming is good for maintaining soil quality and could be adopted or promoted as an alternative to the conventional farming practices for sustainable use of natural resources, and food safety coupled with climate change.