Rai, Arvind KumarBedwal, Sandeep2024-05-042024-05-042023-04https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810208676Alkalinity hinders the crop growth and productivity of partially reclaimed sodic soil. Reliance formulated elemental sulphur-based novel formulation (RFS) generated from fortification of elemental S (So) had the potential to neutralize soil alkalinity and improve soil nutrient availability for crop production. Therefore, incremental doses (control, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 kg ha–1) of RFS were applied in winter mustard and its residual effect in sorghum was studied for two consecutive years. Parallelly, similar incremental doses of RFS were also applied in wheat, and its residual effect was studied in the rice crop. Application of 47.2 and 45.2 kg ha–1 of RFS can optimize the yield and respective crop benefit ratio. Further, the locally available organic wastes (farmyard manure, city waste compost, poultry manure, sewage sludge and pressmud) were acidified with RFS in a controlled 28 days at room temperature to enhance the titratable acidity and equivalent neutralization potential of waste (ENP). The equivalent neutralization potential of acidulated compost positively correlated with electrolytes, total P, dissolved organic C (DOC), and phenol. Further, multiple regression analysis showed that water–soluble SO42–, Mg2+, and DOC were the key variables that fully explained the alkali neutralization potential of the acidulated organics (R2 >0.99; P< 0.001). Application of acidulated organics @ 10 Mg ha–1 decreased soil pHs and increased the Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42–, total N and total P content of soil solution. It also improved the availability of Olsen‘s P, ammonium acetate extractable K, CaCl2– extractable S and organic C content along with microbial biomass C, N, P and S content. It also improved the activities of soil enzymes viz., dehydrogenase, β–glucosidase, fluorescein diacetate and alkaline phosphatase, except for arylsulphatase. These findings had economic as well as ecological significance for the low-cost nutrient management in alkaline soil conditions and disposal of the agricultural and city wastes.EnglishThesis