Subsistence agriculture practice and a combination of harsh climate and fragile soils along with increasing demographic pressure are matters of great concern from the viewpoint of resource management and longterm sustainability in the semi-arid tropical Alfisol soils of India. In this study, soil quality index (SQI) has been computed on 190 sites of farmers' fields in southern India to evaluate the possible effect of land management practices on soil degradation and determine the critical levels of soil organic C stock to maintain a desirable SQI and also suggest appropriate management practices. In all, 26 predominant physical, chemical and biological properties of soils were studied and based on principal component analysis, moisture retention at field capacity, available soil N, available P, DTPA-extractable Zn, exchangeable sodium percentage, C-mineralization and bulk density were identified as the key indicators of the study region. SQI was also computed using four soil functions, viz. nutrient cycling, availability of water, resistance of soil to degradation, and salinity and sodicity. Soil resilience index was computed using data on substrateinduced respiration after exposing the soil to heat stress. SQI was highest under paddy followed by permanent fallow, maize, cotton, intercropping, redgram, and was lowest under castor system. Based on the results, it was observed that the soils which had higher SQI were also productive and they exhibited higher resilience capacity. An amount of 8.6 Mg ha -1 soil organic C stock per 15 cm depth was found essential to maintain soil quality and 2.2 Mg ha -1 of organic matter was needed every year to maintain this stock. On-farm participatory research trial was conducted using SQI as a tool for sustainable land-management practices.
Three-row multi-crop bullock drawn planter developed by Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad was tested, refined and demonstrated for sowing soybean and other dryland crops on farmers' field during 2008-13. Its performance evaluation was carried out with conventional sowing by bullock drawn tifan. Based on farmers feedback and on-field observations; refinements such as scrapper on ground wheel, boot with seed and fertilizer delivery pipes, fluted roller type fertilizer agitator and increased hole size on fertilizer controlling lever were incorporated in the planter. Field tests showed that the refined planter performed well for sowing soybean, soybean + pigeonpea, chickpea, sorghum and groundnut crops in the district. The field capacity of the planter was 2 ha/day with an average field efficiency of 75% and an average sized bullock could easily pulled it. The planter saved 9-27% seed, 63-75% labour and increased crop yield by 11-20% as compared to conventional sowing by bullock drawn tifan.
Methods of weeding and crop residue mulch with minimum soil disturbance have greater importance in conservation agriculture. Considering the importance of weeding and crop residue mulch in conservation agriculture point of view the project was envisaged to develop double axial transverse rotary mechanism anticipating that there would be a minimum soil disturbance without compromising cutting efficiency, shredding efficiency and weeding efficiency. The prototype developed and tested at Farm Machinery Research Workshop, Central Research Institute for Dry land Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad during 2016-17. Experiments were conducted with sorghum stalk to finalized critical parts such as blade, rotor length, rotor speed, forward speed for development of prototype. Prototype has two cylindrical rotors having triangular edged tooth plates on its periphery rotating in opposite directions in plane. The rotational speed of cylinders was 450 rpm and suitable for 3 km/h travel speed of tractor. The machine was tested in field conditions for sorghum, maize, castor and red gram crop stem cutting and shredding and weeding. The cutting efficiency of finalized model for sorghum, maize, castor, red gram was found to be 94 per cent, 81 per cent, 72 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively. The shredding of finalized model for sorghum, maize, castor, red gram was found to be 69 per cent, 61 per cent, 46 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively. The performance of prototype in terms of cutting and shredding efficiency was found to be superior for 25 per cent stem moisture compared to 45 per cent and 65 per cent stem moisture and it was true in all the crop studied. The weeding efficiency of newly developed model was comparatively lower it disturbed only one inch soil depth as against 1.5-2.0 inch soil depth which indicated that the soil disturbance for per unit area was about 33-50 per cent less when weeding was done with newly developed rotary tiller. Overall, the prototype was found to suit the theme of conservation agriculture.
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