Effect of various soil health indicators on rice productivity in old alluvium of Bihar: A correlation study

Abstract

Conventional method of rice-wheat cropping system leads to deteriorate soil health drastically day by day. An appropriate idea of particular soil health indicator that effects soil health directly should be known to make the crop productivity high. In order to determine the direct and indirect associations among various soil health properties with rice yield in rice-wheat cropping system a survey was done in farmer’s field. Overall 100 soil samples were collected randomly from 100 farmer’s field and studied to find out the soil health. Soil chemical properties (pH, EC, SOC, Avl. N, Avl. P2O5, Avl. K20), Soil physical properties (sand, silt, clay and Available water capacity) and soil biological properties (active carbon, soil respiration and autoclaved citrate extractable protein) were studied to find out the principal indicator for soil health that effects directly to rice yield. The study revealed that mainly soil organic carbon effects rice yield directly along with clay content of soil and soil respiration. Soil microbial activity is also very important in order to achieve good rice yield and positive correlated soil respiration value is evidence of it.  Thus the results suggest that farmers should focus on enhancing soil organic carbon and microbial activity by means of soil respiration with best sustainable management practices in order to achieve higher productivity of rice.