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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. State1981-82 to 1989-90 1990-91 to 1996-97 West Bengal5.131.25 Haryana3.220.10 Bihar1.470.24 Uttar Pradesh1.400.54 Punjab1.241.20 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 CropProductivity 1980-81 to 1989-90 1990-91 to 1999-2000 2000-01 to 2002-03 Rice3.191.27-0.72 Wheat3.102.110.73 Pulses1.610.96-1.84 All Food grains2.741.52-0.69 Oilseeds2.431.25-3.83 Non-food grain2.311.04-1.02

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Required Growth to achieve domestic demand by 2020. CommodityDomestic production 2006- 07 ( mt) Growth rate during 1998-99 to 2006-07 (%) Required growth rate over 2006-07 to meet the demand (%) Cereals201.90.621.9 Pulses14.20.472.1 Foodgrains216.10.611.9 Oilseeds23.61.966.0 Vegetable111.83.680.9 Fruit57.73.062.9 Sugarcane315.5-0.600.6 Milk111.93.652.4 Fish6.92.893.5 Egg (billion)50.76.603.4

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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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Low Fertilizer Response - Irrigated Areas Declining Fertilizer Response

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Fertilizer Nutrient Response - Irrigated Areas Declining Nutrient Response

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Year ? BB Mn SSS KKKK Zn PPPP Fe NNNNNN 195019601970198019902000 Emerging Multi-Nutrient Deficiencies in Soils

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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 Region / StateNo. of Samples% samples in category LowMediumHigh Northern Region15323443026 Western Region12474453025 Eastern Region10108353332 Southern Region11289632611 All India49194463024 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.

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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 2005-062006-072007-08 NP2O5P2O5 K2OK2ONP2O5P2O5 K2OK2ONP2O5P2O5 K2OK2O Haryana29.68.8147.313.4139.810.91 Punjab19.95.9133.7 9.2134.39.01 U.P.12.14.1116.8 5.2115.14.51

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Low nutrient use efficiency NutrientEfficiency (%) Cause of low efficiency Nitrogen30-50Immobilization, volatilization, denitrification, Leaching Phosphorus15-20Fixation in soils Al P, Fe P, Ca P Potassium70-80Fixation in clay - lattices Sulphur8-10Immobilization, Leaching with water Micro nutrients (Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, B) 1-2Fixation in soils

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Nutrient Mining in Soils of India (mt) Nutrient Gross balanceNet balance AdditionRemovalBalanceAdditionRemovalBalance N10.99.61.35.57.7-2.2 P2O5P2O5 4.23.70.51.53.0-1.5 K2OK2O1.411.6-10.21.07.0-6.0 Total16.524.9-8.48.017.7-9.7 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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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. Declining Soil Health A Cause of Concern

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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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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) 8,658N P K S (4)6.8 Palampur HP 9,896 (42) 6,955N P K S B Zn (6) 5.4 R.S.Pura J & K 13,182 (36) 9,718N P K S Cu Mn Zn (7) 2.7 Ranchi Jharkhand 10,957 (77) 6,202N P K S B Cu Mn Zn (8) 7.3 Ludhiana Punjab 16,828 (3) 16,414N P K S B Mn Zn (7) -1.4 (no improve- ment) Site Specific Nutrient Management Rice-Wheat Cropping System Contd..

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Location, StateGrain 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) 11,605N P K S (4)3.6 Modipuram Uttar Pradesh 16,679 (47) 11,334N P K S Cu Mn Zn (7) 26.8 Varanasi Uttar Pradesh 12,116 (10) 10,996N P K S B Cu Mn Zn (8) 2.6 Pantnagar Uttaranchal 12,447 (25) 9,974N P K S B (5)4.6 Average13,289.4 (39) 9,933.7 4.90 Site Specific Nutrient Management Rice-Wheat Cropping System

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LocationCropNormal Fertilization Normal Fertilization + B+Zn+S % Increase in Yield SripuramMaize2980457053 MalleboinpallyMaize+ Pigeonpea 2380 240 4370 420 84 75 NemikalMung bean + Pigeonpea 840 350 1100 660 31 89 TirumalapuramCastor + Pigeonpea 430 410 640 460 49 12 NandavaramPigeonpea1630264062 NandavaramCastor860129050 KarivemulaGroundnut + Pigeonpea 1440 130 1960 330 36 154 SSNM in Rainfed Agriculture (yield kg/ha)

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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 (@5 t / ha on gross cropped area of 185 mha). FYMRural compost Urban Compost Vermi Compost OthersTotal 1861691539383

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Promoting bio-fertilizers 2003-049.8 2004-0510.6 2005-0610.8 2006-0716.1 2007-0820.1 Production zone wise (%) South60 West29 North2.5 East7.3 North- East 0.5 164 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 (thousand tonnes)

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Acid Soils About 12 m ha of arable acid soils with pH