<div style="text-align:justify">Background: Irrigation performs a substantial function for the growth of Agricultural vegetation. Soil supplies essential nutrients for the growth of plant and provides anchor support to the roots of the crops. Soil Moisture permits the requirement for water system to be measured ahead of a yield giving indications of misery. Knowing the soil moisture status empowers exceptionally productive water system, giving the water as and when required and wiping out the inefficient utilization of water when water system isn&rsquo;t required. 
Methods: Sandy clay loam soil contains a decent arrangement of plant supplements and supports most sorts of plants and yields. So in the field plentiful accessibility of this soil its texture is discovered by estimating soil moisture. 
Result: Within the research we developed a soil moisture meter based on capacitive type sensor the output is analog voltage which is calibrated to soil moisture percentage and its performance is comparatively investigated with different moisture sensor under sandy clay loam soil. The proposed model is highly emphasized on the soil moisture percentage that is the level of water content in the soil. The percentage value is displayed in the LCD. The deployment cost is highly reduced in the proposed model.</div>

Performance Assessment of Soil Moisture Meter under Sandy Clay Loam Soil

Background: Constant use of chemical fertilizer in agriculture field, degrade overall soil quality and increases the environmental pollution. Integrated nutrient management is an eco-friendly and cost-effective method that involves the combined application of organic amendment and inorganic fertilizer resulting in upgrading soil health, crop productivity, carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change. The current study aimed to examine the combined effects of organic amendment and inorganic fertilizer on soil quality and crop productivity in maize-wheat cropping systems. 
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Methods: A two-year field experiment was conducted in the month of June-October (2021-2022) for maize and Nov-April (2021- 2022 and 2022-2023) for wheat crop. Fertilizer treatments, viz., control (zero fertilizer), NPK (recommended fertilizer), 50% NPK + A. chroococum, 50% NPK + green manure, 50% NPK + karanja cake, 50% NPK + poultry waste, 50% NPK + wheat residue, 50% NPK + maize residue were applied in a randomized block design with four replications. 
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Result: Application of 50% NPK+ poultry waste showed higher soil organic carbon (0.91% and 0.92%) and microbial biomass carbon (353.42 mg kg-1 and 394.35 mg kg-1) followed by 50% NPK+ karanja cake. Application of 50% NPK + poultry waste increased grain yield by 48.5% and 23.25% in maize and wheat respectively over control. Poultry waste, as a replacement for sole NPK, could be a promising strategy for the management of soil health as well as crop productivity. 
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Integrated Nutrient Management: Effect on Soil Properties and Crop Yields on Sandy Clay Loam Soil under Maize-wheat Cropping System

Background: Sandy soils are characterized by poor structure, low water holding capacity and limited nutrient availability, which in turn have adverse effects on plant growth and productivity. Organic amendments, such as humic acid and clay liquid, have been proposed as environmentally friendly alternatives for enhancing the physicochemical properties of the soil and improving plant performance, especially for crops of high economic and nutritional value like Moringa oleifera. 
 
Methods: In the present study, a factorial arrangement was utilized with a completely randomized block design statistical layout, using three replications for each treatment. Application of humic acid was performed at three concentrations consisting of 0, 5 and 10 mg L-1. As for the clay liquid, applications were made at three levels of 0, 10 and 30 mL L-1. Growth parameters recorded included plant height, number of leaves and branches, leaf area, root dry weight and shoot dry weight. Physical and chemical properties of sandy soil were also analyzed in selected series. Data obtained were subjected to ANOVA tests; meanwhile, treatment means were compared by the LSD test at probability level 0.05. 
 
Result: The findings indicated a significant increase in vegetative growth with humic acid treatment, with the maximum recorded at 10 mg L-1. Clay liquid at 30 mL L-1&nbsp;increased branching, leaf area and biomass. The interaction effect of humic acid at 10 mg L-1&nbsp;with clay liquid at 30 mL L-1&nbsp;gave a better result for most factors related to growth, such as shoot and root dry weight, showing a significant synergy effect between humic acid and clay liquid in showing a significant synergy effect between humic acid and clay liquid in enhancing the vegetative growth of Moringa oleifera of Moringa oleifera. The soil pH, electrical conductivity and nutrient content increased with the application of treatments. 
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Influence of Humic Acid and Clay Liquid on the Physicochemical Properties of Sandy Soil and the Vegetative Growth of Moringa oleifera

<div style="text-align: justify;">An incubation study was conducted to determine the influence of biochar and corn straw on CO2-C emission, soil organic C, microbial biomass C and N, total N, and mineral N (NH4+-N and NO3--N) in a clay loam soil. Six treatments viz., CK (Control); S (Soil + 1% straw); B1 (Soil + 0.5% biochar); B2 (Soil + 2% biochar); SB1 (Soil + 1% straw + 0.5% biochar); SB2 (Soil + 1% straw + 2% biochar) were tested with three replications. Results showed that straw addition to soil with or without biochar increased CO2-C emission while sole-biochar addition (2%) reduced it. Straw and biochar also increased the soil microbial biomass C and N but greatest increase in microbial biomass N (111.9 &micro;g g-1) was recorded by biochar-straw combination. SOC and total N significantly increased following biochar and straw additions which suggest that organic amendments can improve soil chemical properties. Additionally, for soil mineral N, biochar reduced NH4+-N and NO3--N concentrations while straw increased NH4+-N concentration but greatly reduced &nbsp;that of NO3--N.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Dynamics of C and N in a clay loam soil amended with biochar and corn straw</div>

<div>Background: This study aimed to determine the pattern of N mineralization of tithonia (Tithonia diversifolia) and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) leaves and assess the uptake of N nutrients in maize by giving T. diversifolia and S. officinarum leaves with different qualities on sandy loam soil. 
 
Methods: The research used a completely randomized design (CRD) with following treatment: T1 (100% T. diversifolia), T2 (100% S. officinarum), T3 (75% T. diversifolia: 25% S. officinarum), T4 (50% S. officinarum: 50% T. diversifolia), T5 (25% T. diversifolia leaves: 75% S. officinarum), T6 (without T. diversifolia and S. officinarum or control). 
 
Result: The results showed that the N mineralization pattern of the organic matter combination was significantly higher than the control for all observations. The amount of N mineral released in each treatment was T1 (54.58-529.7 mg/kg), T2 (41.80-381 mg/kg), T3 (47.69-473.6 mg/kg), T4 (46.70-424.0 mg/kg), T5 (70.69-378.9 mg/kg) and T6 (47.14-303.6 9 mg/kg). The sequence of cumulative N release during 12 weeks of incubation was T1 (529 mg/kg)&gt; T3 (573.6 mg/kg)&gt; T4 (424.0 mg/kg)&gt; T2 (381 mg/kg)&gt; T5 (378.9 mg/kg)&gt; T6 (303.6 mg/kg). These results suggested that T. diversifolia and S. officinarum leaves significantly increased N nutrient uptake in maize by 125% to 144.54%.</div>

Pattern of N Mineralization and Nutrient Uptake of Tithonia diversifolia and Saccharum officinarum Leaves in Sandy Loam Soil

<div>A field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2016-17 to study the effect of nutrient management and moisture conservation practices on yield attributing characters, yield and economic return of organic baby corn grown in a sandy loam soil under rainfed condition. The experiment was laid out in RBD factorial design with three replications. PAC 321 was used as the test variety of baby corn. Among the treatments enriched compost @ 2.5 t ha-1 has shown the significantly better results with respect to yield attributing characters and cob yield followed by application of FYM @ 2.5 t ha-1+lime+ash (1000:10:1). Treatments with straw mulch @ 2 t/ha recorded significantly higher results with respect to different yield attributing characters, cob yield, green fodder yield and high monitary return with B:C ratio.</div>

<div>Yield Performance of Organic Baby Corn (Zea mays L.) as Influenced by Nutrient Management and Moisture Conservation Practices in Sandy loam Soils of Assam</div>

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: Rice, maize and Bt cotton are the predominant crops which are either grown solely or in rotation with other crops in Telangana state. As all these crops are exhaustive, non leguminous in nature and may lead to fast soil degradation. Therefore, a major agricultural research priority is needed to sustain soil productivity through carbon sequestration by including legume component in cropping systems. The present study was undertaken to investigate effect of cropping systems on carbon sequestration in the ongoing long-term field trial. 
Methods: This field investigation was initiated during the year 2017 at an experimental farm located at College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. The surface soil samples were collected at 0-15 cm depth in various treatments within different cropping systems after harvest of Kharif and Rabi crops, 2019-2020 at the completion of third year of the experiment and analysed for soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) status by following standard procedures. Data were subjected to statistical analysis by adopting RBD statistical tool and analysis of variance was worked by adopting operational statistics (OP STAT) software programme.&nbsp; 
Result: The results indicated the improvement in soil organic carbon over the initial status due to the effect of efficient cropping systems. Significantly highest build-up of organic carbon was noticed in the following cropping sequence: CS5: maize + pigeon pea (1:3) (1.25 Mg ha-1) and CS4: pigeon pea + green gram (1:3) - sesame (1.22 Mg ha-1) but the lowest value of SOC was recorded in CS1: rice-maize (7.51 Mg ha-1) and CS2: Bt cotton-fallow (7.24 Mg ha-1), respectively. During the study, it was also observed that in one of the cropping systems i.e.,&nbsp;CS10: bhendi-marigold-beetroot showed the negative impact on the level of SOC stock (6.77 Mg ha-1) fell below the initial value (7.53 Mg ha-1) after third year of trial. However, the highest carbon sequestration rate was recorded in CS5: maize + pigeon pea (0.42 Mg ha-1 yr-1) and CS4: pigeon pea + green gram (1:3) - sesame (0.41 Mg ha-1 yr-1). The salient findings of this study showed that cropping systems involving legumes and fodder crops had improved soil organic carbon on long term basis.</div>

Long-term Effect of Different Cropping Systems on Carbon Sequestration in a Sandy Loam Soil of Telangana

<div style="text-align: justify;">The study was conducted to evaluate long-term effect of legume intensified maize based crop rotations and contrasting tillage practices and a experiment was laid out in split plot design with three tillage practices i.e. zero tillage (ZT), permanent bed (PB) and conventional tillage (CT) as main plot treatments and four legume intensified crop rotations (MWMb - maize-wheat-mungbean, MCS - maize-chickpea-Sesbania, MMuMb - maize-mustard-mungbean and MMS - maize-maize-Sesbania) as sub-plot treatments. Adoption of CA based tillage practices (ZT/PB) significantly improved maize protein yield (MPY). ZT/PB gave 7.7-14.2% higher MPY(Maize protein yield and 7.4-13.0% higher MPYA (maize protein yield for adults) &nbsp;over CT. Similarly, the MPY and MPYA under legume intensified cereal based rotations were invariably higher in MCS and MWMb systems compared to MMuMb and MMS rotations.The total soil nitrogen (TSN) content increased by 15.4-17.4 and 20.32-20.91% with ZT and PB over CT in 0-15 and 15-30 cm soil depths, respectively. However, among the legume intensified rotations the maize planted under MCS and MWMb rotations registered 11.3-18.0% (0-15cm) and 8.4-11.0% (15-30cm) higher TSN over MMuMb and MMS rotation. Similarly, adoption of the CA practices (ZT/PB) resulted into significant improvement in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks compared to CT. ZT and PB among the tillage practices and MCS crop rotations among the sub-plot treatments registered higher Leaf area index (LAI) and net assimilation rate (NAR) compared to other management practices. Interaction effect of tillage practices and crop rotations were significant for MPY, MPYA, TSN and SOC stocks and all these parameters were reported maximum with ZT-MCS. Thus, our study suggests that CA based crop management with legume diversified maize based rotations (MCS and MWMb) can be advocated as sustainable intensification strategy in north-western India and other similar agro-ecologies of South Asia.</div>

Impact of legume intensified crop rotations and tillage practices on maize productivity vis-&agrave;-vis C and N dynamics of a sandy loam soil in north-western Indo-Gangetic Plains of India

<div>Background: Development of fortified organic formulations using various organic sources and fertilizers for soil application will ensure efficient nutrient management in homestead vegetable production systems. Fortified organic formulations will help in preventing nutrient leaching also. Hence, the present study has been undertaken during 2019-20 to develop low cost fortified organic manure discs using various biodegradable agro waste materials and NPK fertilizers and to study its effect on growth and yield of tomato in sandy soils of Kerala. 
 
Methods: A fortified manure disc was developed by combining local biodegradable agro waste materials with conventional NPK fertilizers. Organic manures like rice husk ash, cow dung, rice husk, coirpith compost, vermicompost, neem cake and clay were used to develop the manure disc. The combination of organic manures was fortified with fertilizers at various proportions of manure: fertilizer viz., 1:1, 2:1, 0.5:1 and manure alone and used for incubation for a period of two months to study the nutrient release pattern of N, P and K.The 2:1(manure: fertilizer) formulation was selected based on the highest peak of nutrient availability of N, P and K even after 2 months. Effect of fortified manure disc was evaluated by using tomato variety Anagha as test crop in a pot culture experiment.&nbsp; 
 
Result: Growth, yield and quality of tomato increased significantly due to the application of fortified manure disc. The highest yield per plant of 0.97 kg was recorded for T8 (50% recommended dose fortified manure disc in 2 splits) and lowest yield was recorded for T9 (Manure alone). The fortified manure disc had a significant influence on nutrient use efficiency also. The highest NUE of 45.5% was recorded in treatment T8 (50% fertilizer fortified discs in 2 splits). Study revealed that fortified manure disc is a promising technology to reduce nutrient leaching and enhancing the nutrient use efficiency in sandy soils. Fifty percentage reduction in the recommended dose of NPK fertilizers were achieved by fortifying the manure disc with fertilizers.Thus the cost of fertilizers and fertilizer load per unit area can be reduced by the application of fortified manure disc which will act as slow release fertilizer.</div>

​Nutrient Release Pattern of a Fortified Manure Disc and its Implication on Yield of Tomato in Sandy Soils

Monocropping of sugarcane is highly profitable to the farmers and sugar industry as it reduces the production cost by 30-40 %. But productivity of sugarcane under multiratooning is declined by 30-50 % every year due to alteration of soil physical properties and soil biology which leads to reduction in cane population per hectare. All such alterations correlate with drastic reduction in ratoon cane yield as compared to plant cane. Multiratooning of sugarcane cultivation can alter on soil health. Hence, the present study was formulated to study the effect of sugarcane monocropping on soil physical and chemical properties in different textural classess of popular sugarcane growing areas of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. Three major soil types (sandy loam, red loam and clay loam) from popular sugarcane growing areas of Visakhapatnam district were collected by using GPS and Most popularly grown sugarcane cultivar for monocropping i.e 87A298 was selected in all these three sites. Results revealed that the soil physical properties under monocropping were negatively influenced with increasing frequency of ratooning in all the textural classes. However more influence was observed under clay loam soils compared to sandy loams. The data on soil fertility status in different ratoons indicated that the available macro nutrient status and soil organic carbon content was more in all the surface soils compared to subsurface soils and it was highest in clay loam soils followed by red loam soils and sandy loams. Among different ratoons relatively highest nutrient status was recorded than succeeding ratoons. With in different textural classes clay loam soils exhibited highest micronutrient status followed by red loams and sandy loam soils. With in the different ratoons there was not much variation in available micro nutrient status. However all the surface soils exhibited higher status than corresponding subsurface soils. Irrespective of the ratooning micronutrient status was more in clay loam soils and low in sandy loam soils.

Performance Assessment of Soil Moisture Meter under Sandy Clay Loam Soil

Integrated Nutrient Management: Effect on Soil Properties and Crop Yields on Sandy Clay Loam Soil under Maize-wheat Cropping System

Influence of Humic Acid and Clay Liquid on the Physicochemical Properties of Sandy Soil and the Vegetative Growth of Moringa oleifera

Dynamics of C and N in a clay loam soil amended with biochar and corn straw

Pattern of N Mineralization and Nutrient Uptake of Tithonia diversifolia and Saccharum officinarum Leaves in Sandy Loam Soil

Yield Performance of Organic Baby Corn (Zea mays L.) as Influenced by Nutrient Management and Moisture Conservation Practices in Sandy loam Soils of Assam

Long-term Effect of Different Cropping Systems on Carbon Sequestration in a Sandy Loam Soil of Telangana

Impact of legume intensified crop rotations and tillage practices on maize productivity vis-à-vis C and N dynamics of a sandy loam soil in north-western Indo-Gangetic Plains of India

Nutrient Release Pattern of a Fortified Manure Disc and its Implication on Yield of Tomato in Sandy Soils

Effect of sugarcane monocropping on soil physical and chemical properties in texturally varied soils