Soil health and Nutrient Management

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Soil health and Nutrient Management

• P. D. Sharma
• Assistant Director General (NRM)
• ICAR, Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan II
• New Delhi-110 012

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Soil Health

• Capacity of a soil to function within ecosystem
  boundaries to sustain biological productivity,
  maintain environmental quality and promote plant
  and animal health.
• In the context of agriculture, it may refer to
  its ability to sustain productivity.
• A healthy soil would ensure proper retention and
  release of water and nutrients, promote and
  sustain root growth, maintain soil biotic
  habitat, respond to management and resist
  degradation

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Measure of Soil Health

• Governed by a number of physical, chemical and
  biological attributes and processes.
• Expressed by different quantitative and
  qualitative measures of these attributes as also
  by outcomes that are governed by the soil such as
  productivity, nutrient and water use efficiencies
  and quality of produce.

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Declining Soil Health A Cause of Concern

• Deceleration in growth of total factor
  productivity in agriculture, especially in IGP
  states.

State 1981-82 to 1989-90 1990-91 to 1996-97
West Bengal 5.13 1.25
Haryana 3.22 0.10
Bihar 1.47 0.24
Uttar Pradesh 1.40 0.54
Punjab 1.24 1.20
Source Kumar et al. (2004)
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Declining Soil Health A Cause of Concern

• Falling productivity growth rate ( per annum) of
  major crops in India

Crop Productivity Productivity Productivity
Crop 1980-81 to 1989-90 1990-91 to 1999-2000 2000-01 to 2002-03
Rice 3.19 1.27 -0.72
Wheat 3.10 2.11 0.73
Pulses 1.61 0.96 -1.84
All Food grains 2.74 1.52 -0.69
Oilseeds 2.43 1.25 -3.83
Non-food grain 2.31 1.04 -1.02
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Required Growth to achieve domestic demand by
2020.
Commodity Domestic production 2006-07 ( mt) Growth rate during 1998-99 to 2006-07 () Required growth rate over 2006-07 to meet the demand ()
Cereals 201.9 0.62 1.9
Pulses 14.2 0.47 2.1
Foodgrains 216.1 0.61 1.9
Oilseeds 23.6 1.96 6.0
Vegetable 111.8 3.68 0.9
Fruit 57.7 3.06 2.9
Sugarcane 315.5 -0.60 0.6
Milk 111.9 3.65 2.4
Fish 6.9 2.89 3.5
Egg (billion) 50.7 6.60 3.4
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Food grain production and fertilizer use
Fertilizers An important input contributing 50
towards improvement in crop productivity
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Declining Fertilizer Response
Low Fertilizer Response - Irrigated Areas
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Declining Nutrient Response
Fertilizer Nutrient Response - Irrigated Areas
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Emerging Multi-Nutrient Deficiencies in Soils
Year ?
Year B B
Year Mn Mn Mn
Year S S S
Year K K K K
Year Zn Zn Zn Zn
Year P P P P
Year Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe
Year N N N N N N
Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
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Nutrient Status N P K
Indian soils poor in N and P with 89 and 80
percent soil samples in low to medium category
relatively better in K with 50 percent samples
only low to medium.
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Nutrient Status Micro and Secondary
S, Zn, B, Mo, Fe, Mn and Cu deficient to the tune
of 41, 49, 33, 22, 12, 5 and 4 respectively.
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Sulphur Deficiency in Indian Soils

• The deficiencies are widespread covering 40- 45
  
• districts and 60mha of net sown area occurrence
  
• more in the southern region.
• The deficit to the tune of 1mt/annum.

Region / State No. of Samples samples in category samples in category samples in category
Low Medium High
Northern Region 15323 44 30 26
Western Region 12474 45 30 25
Eastern Region 10108 35 33 32
Southern Region 11289 63 26 11
All India 49194 46 30 24
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Zinc Deficiency
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Boron Deficiency
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Imbalanced fertilizer use evidenced by wider
fertilizer consumption ratios
State   2005-06 2005-06 2005-06 2006-07 2006-07 2006-07 2007-08 2007-08 2007-08
State   N P2O5 K2O N P2O5 K2O N P2O5 K2O
Haryana 29.6 8.8 1 47.3 13.4 1 39.8 10.9 1
Punjab 19.9 5.9 1 33.7 9.2 1 34.3 9.0 1
U.P. 12.1 4.1 1 16.8 5.2 1 15.1 4.5 1
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Low nutrient use efficiency
Nutrient Efficiency () Cause of low efficiency
Nitrogen 30-50 Immobilization, volatilization, denitrification, Leaching
Phosphorus 15-20 Fixation in soils Al P, Fe P, Ca P
Potassium 70-80 Fixation in clay - lattices
Sulphur 8-10 Immobilization, Leaching with water
Micro nutrients (Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, B) 1-2 Fixation in soils
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Nutrient Mining in Soils of India (mt)
Nutrient Gross balance Gross balance Gross balance Net balance Net balance Net balance
Addition Removal Balance Addition Removal Balance
N 10.9 9.6 1.3 5.5 7.7 -2.2
P2O5 4.2 3.7 0.5 1.5 3.0 -1.5
K2O 1.4 11.6 -10.2 1.0 7.0 -6.0
Total 16.5 24.9 -8.4 8.0 17.7 -9.7

• Increased mining of soil potassium a cause of
  more
• rampant decline in rice yields compared to wheat
  in IGP
• (data from 24 research stations)
• Source Tandon (2004)

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Projected Food Grain Production, Fertilizer
Demand, likely Consumption and Gap
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Declining Soil Health A Cause of Concern

• Managing soil health a formidable challenge to
  ensure productivity, profitability and national
  food security.
• The United Nations Millennium Development Task
  Force on hunger made Soil Health Enhancement as
  one of the five recommendations for increasing
  agricultural productivity and fight hunger in
  India.

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Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) Panacea
for soil health and productivity

• INM envisaging conjunctive use of chemical
  fertilizers, organic manures and biofertilizers
  enhances nutrient use efficiency, soil health,
  crop yields and profitability
• Need to augment supplies of organic manures,
  fortified, coated customized fertilizers
  supplying secondary and micronutrients,
  biofertilizers and soil amendments to have INM on
  a sound footing.
• Site specific nutrient management.

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Site Specific Nutrient Management Rice-Wheat
Cropping System
Location, State Grain yield SSNM plot, Kg/ha/ yr Grain yield FP plot, Kg/ha/yr Nutrients applied under SSNM BCR of improvement (SSNM-FP) system basis
Sabour Bihar 13,849 (60) 8,658 N P K S (4) 6.8
Palampur HP 9,896 (42) 6,955 N P K S B Zn (6) 5.4
R.S.Pura J K 13,182 (36) 9,718 N P K S Cu Mn Zn (7) 2.7
Ranchi Jharkhand 10,957 (77) 6,202 N P K S B Cu Mn Zn (8) 7.3
Ludhiana Punjab 16,828 (3) 16,414 N P K S B Mn Zn (7) -1.4 (no improve-ment)
Contd..
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Site Specific Nutrient Management Rice-Wheat
Cropping System
Location, State Grain yield SSNM plot, Kg/ha/ yr Grain yield FP plot, Kg/ha/ yr Nutrients applied under SSNM BCR of improvement (SSNM-FP) system basis
Kanpur Uttar Pradesh 14,555 (25) 11,605 N P K S (4) 3.6
Modipuram Uttar Pradesh 16,679 (47) 11,334 N P K S Cu Mn Zn (7) 26.8
Varanasi Uttar Pradesh 12,116 (10) 10,996 N P K S B Cu Mn Zn (8) 2.6
Pantnagar Uttaranchal 12,447 (25) 9,974 N P K S B (5) 4.6
Average 13,289.4 (39) 9,933.7   4.90
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SSNM in Rainfed Agriculture (yield kg/ha)
Location Crop Normal Fertilization Normal Fertilization BZnS Increase in Yield
Sripuram Maize 2980 4570 53
Malleboinpally Maize Pigeonpea 2380 240 4370 420 84 75
Nemikal Mung bean Pigeonpea 840 350 1100 660 31 89
Tirumalapuram Castor Pigeonpea 430 410 640 460 49 12
Nandavaram Pigeonpea 1630 2640 62
Nandavaram Castor 860 1290 50
Karivemula Groundnut Pigeonpea 1440 130 1960 330 36 154
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LTFE data 1972-2003
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Enhancing availability of organic manures

• Recycling and composting/ vermi composting of
  urban, animal and agro industrial waste
• About 57MT of urban solid waste generated per
  annum with potential to supply 8MT of good
  quality compost.
• Present availability 383 mt against the moderate
  requirement of 900 mt / annum (_at_5 t / ha on gross
  cropped area of 185 mha).

FYM Rural compost Urban Compost Vermi Compost Others Total
186 169 15 3 9 383
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Promoting bio-fertilizers
Production (thousand tonnes)
2003-04 9.8
2004-05 10.6
2005-06 10.8
2006-07 16.1
2007-08 20.1

• 164 units producing only one-third of installed
  capacity of 67,000 t/annum
• The consumption is skewed - 90 in south west
  zones of the country

Production zone wise ()
South 60
West 29
North 2.5
East 7.3
North-East 0.5
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Acid Soils

• About 12 m ha of arable acid soils with pHlt5.5
  have low nutrient use efficiency and crop
  productivity.
• Liming to enhance nutrient use efficiency and
  productivity of crops, especially of pulses and
  oilseeds.
• The practice saves 50 fertilizers

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Crop Response( q/ha) to lime Fertilizer
Application
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Salt Affected Soils

• Reclamation of 7m ha of salt affected soils
  for increased nutrient use efficiency and
  productivity

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Utilization of Indigenously Available Nutrient
Sources

• Large reserves of low grade rock phosphate(160MT)
  and K bearing mica in the country could be
  co-composted for production of P K enriched
  manure
• Phospogypsum, a by-product of fertilizer industry
  containing 16 S and 21Ca, a potential source of
  S and Ca for crops.
• About 7MT of phosphogypsum generated per annum
  has a potential to supply 1 mt of S and 1.4 mt of
  Ca
• Coarse textured acidic and sodic soils low in S
  and Ca to benefit from its supplementation.

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Fertilizers Policy Measures

• Nutrient Based Pricing and Subsidy The pricing
  of fertilizers and subsidy on them to be fixed as
  per nutrient content and not product wise.
• The move to encourage use of complexes and
  broaden the basket of fertilizers for balanced
  fertilizer use
• The new pricing mechanism would reduce dependence
  on DAP.
• The SSP containing 11 sulphur to be promoted to
  correct wide spread sulphur deficiency in soils
  besides a P source.

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Promoting Fortified and Coated Fertilizers

• The fertilizers to be fortified and coated with
  micro and secondary nutrients to correct their
  deficiencies in soils Zincated urea, boronated
  SSP DAP etc.
• Policy decision by the Govt. to allow additional
  cost of fortification and coating to
  manufacturers (5-10 above MRP)

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Promoting Fertigation and Water Soluble /
Speciality Fertilizers

• Fertigation increasing nutrient use efficiency by
  40 to be popularized for fruits, vegetables,
  flowers and plantation crops.
• Hold great promise as micro-irrigation to be
  expanded on 69 m ha in subsequent plan periods
• The fully water soluble fertilizers are costly
  due to heavy custom duty sales tax besides
  higher initial cost.
• Need to be manufactured in India and brought
  under FCO 1985.

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Strengthening Soil Testing Service

• The service presently inadequate with a capacity
  to analyze only 7m soil samples/ annum against
  120 m farm holdings in the country.
• Need to open more soil testing laboratories at
  least one each in different districts with state
  of art facilities.
• The laboratories to participate in the
  preparation of geo-referenced soil fertility maps
  at district and block levels.
• National Commission on Farmers has recommended
  additional 1000 advanced soil testing
  laboratories in the country.

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Periodic Change in Zn Deficiency
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P Build-Up in Soils of Punjab
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Organic Carbon Status

• Soil organic carbon (SOC) governs soil
  productivity and environment.
• The earlier studies linked reduced productivity
  of the rice-wheat system in IGP plain with
  declining soil organic matter (SOM) content.
• The recent studies on SOC build up in soils over
  a long period subscribe to a different school of
  thought.
• The evaluation of large soil test data for 25
  years (1981-82 to 2005-06) has revealed
  improvement in SOC status by 38 under intensive
  agriculture in Punjab.

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Conclusion

• Widespread nutrient deficiencies and
  deteriorating soil health are cause of low
  nutrient use efficiency, productivity
  profitability.
• Adoption of site-specific balanced and integrated
  nutrient management involving major, secondary
  and micro nutrients, organic manures,
  biofertilizers and amendments.
• Conducive policy environment for more investments
  in the fertilizer sector for sustained supplies
  of fertilizers.
• Utilizing all indigenously available nutrient
  sources to reduce dependence on imports.
• Developing new efficient fertilizer products/
  approaches through state of art R D
  applications.
• Effective soil testing service to back up precise
  fertilizer use.
• Creating awareness amongst farmers on benefits of
  balanced fertilization.

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Thank you