Enhancing wheat productivity and soil physical properties of water eroded agricultural land through integrated nutrient management
Agricultural land in Pakistan is decreasing due to development of infrastructure and in order to feed its masses, agricultural activities are shifting towards sloping land where soil loss through surface runoff process is the sternest ecological threat to sustainable agriculture. Improving soil fe...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Soil Science Society of Pakistan (SSSP)
2018-06-01
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| Series: | Soil & Environment |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://se.org.pk/File-Download.aspx?archivedpaperid=820 |
| Summary: | Agricultural land in Pakistan is decreasing due to development of infrastructure and in order to feed its masses,
agricultural activities are shifting towards sloping land where soil loss through surface runoff process is the sternest
ecological threat to sustainable agriculture. Improving soil fertility and crop productivity through integrated
nutrients management (INM) is a globally accepted practice. The reported study was conducted during 2014-15 for
field investigations in the improvement of eroded soil’s physical characteristics and crop productivity using
integrated nutrients management techniques. The treatments contained combinations of NPK (% of recommended
dose 120:90:60 kg NPK ḥa-1), FYM (t ha-1) and Poultry manure PM (t ha-1) respectively as; 0:0:0, 100%:0:0, 0:20:0,
25%:15:0, 50%:10:0, 75%:5:0, 0:0:10, 25:0:7.5, 50%:0:5, 75%:0:2.5, 0:5:2.5, 25%:5:2.5, 50%:5:2.5, 75%:5:2.5.
Results revealed that 50%:5:2.5 combination of nutrient sources significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved spike m-2 (by
34%), grains spike-1 (by 38%) and grain yield (by 90%) over the control treatment. Regarding soil physical
properties, 0:20:0 combination reduced soil bulk density while improving available water, organic matter content
and saturation water percentage at 0-15 cm soil depth. Positive correlation of soil organic matter was observed with
available water holding capacity (ṙ = 0.92) and saturation percentage (ṙ = 0.93) while negatively co-related with
ṣoil bulk density (ṙ = -0.96). It was concluded that chemical fertilizer’s improvement in physical properties of eroded
soil and the resultant production was significantly lagging behind that achieved with integrated nutrient
management. Under the current experimental conditions, 50%:5:2.5 combination of nutrient sources application
restituted the physical properties of eroded soil and showed asset over rest of the INM and their unshared
applications. |
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| ISSN: | 2074-9546 2075-1141 |