MICROBIAL AND BIOCHEMICAL SOIL HEALTH INDICATORS FOR DRY LAND AGRICULTURE IN ALFISOLS
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Date
41155
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University of Agricultural Sciences GKVK, Bangalore
Abstract
Alfisols of dry land agriculture are degrading due to several physical, chemical
and biological constraints. Recognizing the importance of soil quality in dryland alfisols,
efforts were made to identify the microbial indicators for assessment of soil health in a
long-term experiment comprising of organics and fertilizers under different cropping
sequences at the Dry land experimental field unit, UAS, GKVK, Bangalore. In this study,
soil and nutrient management practices were evaluated for their long-term influence on
soil quality using certain microbial indicators. The microbial indicators considered are;
abundance of different functional groups of microorganisms, their bio-chemical activities
and soil physico-chemical parameters.
The results showed, that there was a significant increase in abundance of different
functional groups of microorganisms viz., Azotobacter, cellulose degrading
microorganisms, phosphate solubilizing microorganisms, ammonium and nitrite oxidizers
and mycorrhizal spore density, microbial parameters like soil microbial biomass-C and N
due to the amendment of both organics (FYM/maize residues) and fertilizers irrespective
of the cropping sequences compared to that of control and when applied singly. The
application of both organics and fertilizers also increased soil biochemical activities like
the activities of enzymes viz., dehydrogenases, phosphatases and ureases. Further, the soil
physico-chemical properties also improved with the treatment of organics along with
inorganic fertilizers.
There was a significant positive correlation between the microbial parameters,
soil bio-chemical properties to that of soil physico-chemical properties and crop yield.
This suggests that the microbial and their biochemical properties can be used as
indicators to assess the soil health in alfisols of dryland agriculture.