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Among the several causes, critical low soil organic matter status is predominant for decline in soil health and consequent fall in crop productivity. Over the years, availability of traditional source of soil organic amendment, viz. cattle manure drastically declined due to various reasons (domestic uses as fuel and plastering of the kachha houses). The present study highlights that there are many alternative sources of soil organic amendments available in the country which have tremendous potential to improve soil organic matter status and crop productivity, and rejuvenate and enhance the dying total factor productivity of Indian soils. Data from various sources reveal that about 300 million tonnes of alternative sources of soil organic amendments are available in the country. This study highlights that the application of alternative sources of organic amendments directly or indirectly improves soil health by influencing many soil properties (physical and chemical) and enzyme activities (biological) that regulate nutrient dynamics in the soil. Consequent upon improvement in soil environment, the application of alternative sources of soil organic amendments alone or along with recommended dose of fertilizers registered significantly higher yield in different crops across different agro-climatic conditions of the country. Composting and vermicomposting are the best strategies to convert the biomass of available alternative sources of organic amendments to plant nutrient-rich products.

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In this article we review how different management technologies like integrated nutrient management, tillage practices, mulching, addition of clay, surface compaction, conservation tillage, use of polymers, etc. can favourably modify the soil physical properties like bulk density, porosity, aeration, soil moisture, soil aggregation, water retention and transmission properties, and soil processes like evaporation, infiltration, run-off and soil loss for better crop growth and yield. We suggest that if appropriate soil management technologies are adopted in rainfed areas for the improvement of soil physical health, the productivity of rainfed crops can be significantly improved.

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A long term experiment was conducted for 11 years to study the effects of soil and nutrient management practices on soil fertility and additive soil quality indices in rainfed Alfisol, at Hyderabad, India. The treatments were comprised of conventional tillage (CT) and minimum tillage (MT) as main factors, sorghum stover (dry) @ 2 t/ha (SS), fresh gliricidia loppings @ 2 t/ha (GL) and no residue (NR) application on surface as sub-treatments and N levels @ 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg N/ ha as sub-sub treatments in castor-sorghum yearly rotation. The results indicated that after 11 years, MT significantly improved organic carbon (OC), available N, available K, exchangeable Mg, available S, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), dehydrogenase activity (DHA), labile carbon (LC), bulk density (BD) and mean weight diameter (MWD) of soil aggregates. Application of sorghum residue and gliricidia loppings showed significant increase in OC by 6.28% and 3.7%, respectively over NR. Statistical regression functions indicated that soil parameters viz., MBC, LC, MWD, OC, S, Fe and DHA influenced by long term soil management practices significantly influenced the crop yield. The physical (PSQI), physico-chemical (PCSQI), chemical (CSQI), biological (BSQI) and additive SQIs (ASQI) were significantly influenced by management treatments. On an average, the percent contribution of these component soil quality indices towards ASQI was in the order of BSQI (32.1%) > CSQI (26.1%) > PSQI (25.7%) > PCSQI (16.2%). Crop yields were significantly correlated with these indices and thus emphasized their importance in increasing the productivity in these semi arid Alfisol soils.

To meet the requirement of increasing demand for food and fodder and to ensure food security, it is important to increase the production potential through soil health improvement in rainfed agroecological regions besides the irrigated regions. Degrading soil health because of decrease in soil organic carbon (SOC) and resultant decline in overall soil fertility in rainfed areas is a major threat to sustenance of crop and fodder productivity. In view of the importance of soil organic matter (SOM), and its close relationship with soil health and crop production, its role in carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling has gained much attention in the last few years. Restoration of SOM contents in the soil to optimal levels will not only improve the soil health of rainfed agroecosystem, but will also significantly contribute towards boosting crop production. In this article, we have critically reviewed the impacts of different crop management practices on SOC content and its impact on soil health and crop productivity in rainfed agroecological regions of the country.