The impact of cut-soiler technology on rice-wheat production in salt-affected areas of western Indo-Gangetic Plains of India.

Soil salinization poses a significant challenge to agricultural productivity worldwide, particularly in the rice-wheat belt of the western Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), where excess sodium salts (sodicity) degrade soil health and threaten crop production. The cut-soiler, a farm machine developed in Japan, is an innovative and cost-effective solution. The cut-soiler constructs residue-filled, shallow subsurface drains, enhancing lateral and vertical water movement through the soil and improving soil conditions and crop productivity.

Strategic Switching from Conventional Urea to Nano-Urea for Sustaining the Rice-Wheat Cropping System.

In the face of declining crop yields, inefficient fertilizer usage, nutrient depletion, and limited water availability, the efficiency of conventional NPK fertilizers is a critical issue in India. The hypothesis of this study posits that nano-nitrogen could enhance growth and photosynthetic efficiency in crop plants compared to conventional fertilizers. For this, a randomized block design (RBD) field experiment was conducted with six treatments: no nitrogen (T1), 100% N through urea (T2), and varying levels of N replacement with nano-nitrogen (33%: T3; 50%: T4; 66%: T5; and 100%: T6).

Occurrence of Sphingomonas olei with elemental S oxidation capability in sodic soil: Potential role in sodicity reclamation and plant growth promotion.

The success of the sodic soil reclamation using elemental S (S°) depends on the population of the native S° oxidizers. Augmenting the native flora of the sodic soils with effective S° oxidizers can enhance the success of the sodic soil reclamation. Present study reports for the first time the S° oxidation potential of the Sphingomonas olei strain 20UP7 isolated from sodic soils with pH 9.

Characterization of flue gas desulphurized (FGD) gypsum of a coal-fired plant and its relevant risk of associated potential toxic elements in sodic soil reclamation.

Thermal Power Plant generates FGD gypsum as by-product during coal combustion. This study evaluates the characterization (spectroscopic and elemental), potentially toxic elements (PTEs) distribution, and environmental risk assessment of FGD gypsum for safe and sustainable use in agriculture. The XRD and SEM analysis confirmed the dominance of crystalline CaSO·2HO in FGD gypsum.

Sodicity stress differently influences physiological traits and anti-oxidant enzymes in pear and peach cultivars.

Background: The growth and physiological responses to sodicity stress of pear and peach are poorly understood. Insights into how sodicity stress alters tree physiology remain vital to developing salt tolerant scion and rootstock cultivars.

Methods: The effects of sodicity stress (soil pH ~8.

Agronomic biofortification of food crops: An emerging opportunity for global food and nutritional security.

Fortification of food with mineral micronutrients and micronutrient supplementation occupied the center stage during the two-year-long Corona Pandemic, highlighting the urgent need to focus on micronutrition. Focus has also been intensified on the biofortification (natural assimilation) of mineral micronutrients into food crops using various techniques like agronomic, genetic, or transgenic. Agronomic biofortification is a time-tested method and has been found useful in the fortification of several nutrients in several crops, yet the nutrient use and uptake efficiency of crops has been noted to vary due to different growing conditions like soil type, crop management, fertilizer type, etc.

Irrigation water quality, gypsum, and city waste compost addition affect P dynamics in saline-sodic soils.

The amendments used for sodicity reclamation also profoundly influence P dynamics and leaching losses. This study characterized the effect of irrigation water quality on P dynamics and leaching from saline-sodic soil during reclamation utilizing gypsum alone or in combination with manure and city compost. Changes in properties of unleached and leached soils were fitted with labile P pools using redundancy analysis.

Characterization and ecotoxicological risk assessment of sewage sludge from industrial and non-industrial cities.

The present study highlights the occurrence and the temporal variations of physicochemical properties, and heavy metals in the sludge from sewage treatment plants (STPs) located in industrial (two sites) and non-industrial (one site) cities of Haryana, India. The sludge was acidic (5.59) to neutral (7.

Soil spatial variability characterization: Delineating index-based management zones in salt-affected agroecosystem of India.

Farm level recommendation in salt-affected agricultural landscapes is practically difficult due to spatial variations in inherent soil salinity, diverse farming situations and associated land ownerships with small-scale production systems. This study presents spatial array analysis of 354 geo-referenced soil samples revealing widespread heterogeneity in soil sodicity and fertility status across salt-affected Ghaghar basin of Kaithal district in Haryana, India. Six principal components accounted for 73% of the total variability, and the most important contributors [electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), DTPA extractable copper (Cu) and boron (B), soil organic carbon (OC) and available phosphorus (AP)] as minimum data set were used to develop the soil quality index (SQI).

Deficit saline water irrigation under reduced tillage and residue mulch improves soil health in sorghum-wheat cropping system in semi-arid region.

Judicious application of saline water except for critical growth stages, could be the only practical solution to meet the crop water demand in arid and semi-arid regions, due to limited access to freshwater, especially during dry winter months. A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of tillage [conventional (CT), reduced (RT), and zero (ZT)], rice straw mulch and deficit saline-water irrigation in wheat (100, 80 and 60% of wheat water requirement, CWR) followed by rainfed sorghum on soil properties and the yields of the cropping system. Yields of both the crops were comparable between RT and CT, but the wheat yield was reduced in ZT.