Soil health and Nutrient

Management

P. D. Sharma
Assistant Director General
(NRM)
ICAR, Krishi Anusandhan
Bhavan II
New Delhi-110 012
 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
 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.
 Declining Soil Health A Cause
of Concern
Deceleration in growth of total factor productivity in
agriculture, especially in IGP states.

State 1981-82 to 1990-91 to

1989-90 1996-97
West Bengal 5.13 1.25
Haryana 3.22 0.10
Bihar 1.47 0.24
Uttar Pradesh 1.40 0.54
Punjab 1.24 1.20
Source : Kumar et al. (2004)
 Declining Soil Health A Cause of
Concern
Falling productivity growth rate (% per annum) of major crops in India

Crop Productivity
1980-81 to 1990-91 to 2000-01 to
1989-90 1999-2000 2002-03
Rice 3.19 1.27 -0.72
Wheat 3.10 2.11 0.73
Pulses 1.61 0.96 -1.84
All Food grains 2.74 1.52 -0.69
Oilseeds 2.43 1.25 -3.83
Non-food grain 2.31 1.04 -1.02
 Required Growth to achieve
domestic demand by 2020.
Commodity Domestic Growth rate Required growth
production 2006- during 1998-99 rate over 2006-07
07 ( mt) to 2006-07 (%) to meet the
demand (%)
Cereals 201.9 0.62 1.9
Pulses 14.2 0.47 2.1
Foodgrains 216.1 0.61 1.9
Oilseeds 23.6 1.96 6.0
Vegetable 111.8 3.68 0.9
Fruit 57.7 3.06 2.9
Sugarcane 315.5 -0.60 0.6
Milk 111.9 3.65 2.4
Fish 6.9 2.89 3.5
Egg (billion) 50.7 6.60 3.4
Food grain production and fertilizer use

Fertilizers An important input contributing 50%

towards improvement in crop productivity
 Declining Fertilizer Response

Low Fertilizer Response - Irrigated Areas

 Declining Nutrient Response
Fertilizer Nutrient Response - Irrigated Areas
Emerging Multi-Nutrient Deficiencies
in Soils
?
B B
Mn Mn Mn
S S S
K K K K
Zn Zn Zn Zn
P P P P
Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe
N N N N N N
 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.
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.
 Sulphur Deficiency in Indian Soils
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.
Region / State No. of Samples % samples in category
Low Medium High
Northern Region 15323 44 30 26
Western Region 12474 45 30 25
Eastern Region 10108 35 33 32
Southern Region 11289 63 26 11
All India 49194 46 30 24
Zinc Deficiency
Boron Deficiency
 Imbalanced fertilizer use evidenced
by wider fertilizer consumption
ratios
State 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

N P2O5 K2O N P2O5 K2O N P2O5 K2O

Haryana 29.6 8.8 1 47.3 13.4 1 39.8 10.9 1

Punjab 19.9 5.9 1 33.7 9.2 1 34.3 9.0 1

U.P. 12.1 4.1 1 16.8 5.2 1 15.1 4.5 1

 Low nutrient use efficiency

Nutrient Efficiency Cause of low efficiency

(%)
Nitrogen 30-50 Immobilization, volatilization,
denitrification, Leaching
Phosphorus 15-20 Fixation in soils Al P, Fe P,
Ca P
Potassium 70-80 Fixation in clay - lattices
Sulphur 8-10 Immobilization, Leaching with
water
Micro 1-2 Fixation in soils
nutrients
(Zn, Fe, Cu,
Mn, B)
Nutrient Mining in Soils of India (mt)
Nutrient Gross balance Net balance
Addition Removal Balance Addition Removal Balance

N 10.9 9.6 1.3 5.5 7.7 -2.2

P2O5 4.2 3.7 0.5 1.5 3.0 -1.5
K2O 1.4 11.6 -10.2 1.0 7.0 -6.0
Total 16.5 24.9 -8.4 8.0 17.7 -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)

Projected Food Grain Production, Fertilizer Demand,
likely Consumption and Gap
Declining Soil Health A Cause of Concern

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.
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.
 Site Specific Nutrient Management
Rice-Wheat Cropping System
Location, Grain yield* Grain yield Nutrients BCR of
State SSNM plot, FP plot, applied under improvement
Kg/ha/ Kg/ha/yr SSNM (SSNM-FP)
yr system basis

Sabour 13,849 8,658 N P K S (4) 6.8

Bihar (60)
Palampur 9,896 6,955 N P K S B Zn 5.4
HP (42) (6)
R.S.Pura 13,182 9,718 N P K S Cu Mn 2.7
J&K (36) Zn (7)

Ranchi 10,957 6,202 N P K S B Cu 7.3

Jharkhand (77) Mn Zn (8)
Ludhiana 16,828 16,414 N P K S B Mn -1.4
Punjab (3) Zn (7) (no improve-
ment)
Contd..
 Site Specific Nutrient Management
Rice-Wheat Cropping System
Location, State Grain yield* Grain yield Nutrients BCR of
SSNM plot, FP plot, applied under improvement
Kg/ha/ Kg/ha/ SSNM (SSNM-FP)
yr yr system basis

Kanpur 14,555 11,605 N P K S (4) 3.6

Uttar Pradesh (25)
Modipuram 16,679 11,334 N P K S Cu Mn 26.8
Uttar Pradesh (47) Zn (7)

Varanasi 12,116 10,996 N P K S B Cu 2.6

Uttar Pradesh (10) Mn Zn (8)

Pantnagar 12,447 9,974 N P K S B (5) 4.6

Uttaranchal (25)

Average 13,289.4 9,933.7 4.90

(39)
 SSNM in Rainfed Agriculture (yield kg/ha)

Location Crop Normal Normal %

Fertilization Fertilization + Increase
B+Zn+S in Yield
Sripuram Maize 2980 4570 53
Malleboinpally Maize+ 2380 4370 84
Pigeonpea 240 420 75
Nemikal Mung bean + 840 1100 31
Pigeonpea 350 660 89
Tirumalapuram Castor + 430 640 49
Pigeonpea 410 460 12
Nandavaram Pigeonpea 1630 2640 62
Nandavaram Castor 860 1290 50
Karivemula Groundnut + 1440 1960 36
Pigeonpea 130 330 154
 16 15.2

14 LTFE data 1972-2003 12.8

12
10.1
Response ratio

10
8.1
8
6
4
2
0
Only N NP NPK NPK+FYM
Nutrient
 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).
FYM Rural Urban Vermi Others Total
compost Compost Compost
186 169 15 3 9 383
 Promoting bio-fertilizers
Production (thousand tonnes)
2003-04 9.8 164 units producing
2004-05 10.6
only one-third of
2005-06 10.8
installed capacity of
2006-07 16.1
67,000 t/annum
2007-08 20.1
Production zone wise (%)
South 60
The consumption is
West 29
North 2.5
skewed - 90% in south
East 7.3 & west zones of the
North- 0.5 country
East
Acid Soils
About 12 m ha of arable
acid soils with pH<5.5
have low nutrient use
efficiency and crop
productivity.

Liming to enhance
nutrient use efficiency
and productivity of crops,
especially of pulses and
oilseeds.

The practice saves 50%

fertilizers
Crop Response( q/ha) to lime & Fertilizer Application
Salt Affected Soils

Reclamation
of 7m ha of
salt affected
soils for
increased
nutrient use
efficiency
and
productivity
Utilization of Indigenously Available
Nutrient Sources
Large reserves of low grade rock
phosphate(160MT) and K bearing mica in the
country could be co-composted for
production of P & K enriched manure
Phospogypsum, a by-product of fertilizer
industry containing 16% S and 21%Ca, a
potential source of S and Ca for crops.
About 7MT of phosphogypsum generated per
annum has a potential to supply 1 mt of S
and 1.4 mt of Ca
Coarse textured acidic and sodic soils low in
S and Ca to benefit from its supplementation.
 Fertilizers Policy Measures
Nutrient Based Pricing and Subsidy :
The pricing of fertilizers and subsidy on them
to be fixed as per nutrient content and not
product wise.
The move to encourage use of complexes
and broaden the basket of fertilizers for
balanced fertilizer use
The new pricing mechanism would reduce
dependence on DAP.
The SSP containing 11% sulphur to be
promoted to correct wide spread sulphur
deficiency in soils besides a P source.
 Promoting Fortified and Coated
Fertilizers
The fertilizers to be fortified and
coated with micro and secondary
nutrients to correct their
deficiencies in soils Zincated
urea, boronated SSP & DAP etc.
Policy decision by the Govt. to
allow additional cost of fortification
and coating to manufacturers (5-
10% above MRP)
 Promoting Fertigation and Water
Soluble / Speciality Fertilizers
Fertigation increasing
nutrient use efficiency by 40%
to be popularized for fruits,
vegetables, flowers and
plantation crops.
Hold great promise as micro-
irrigation to be expanded on
69 m ha in subsequent plan
periods
The fully water soluble
fertilizers are costly due to
heavy custom duty & sales
tax besides higher initial cost.
Need to be manufactured in
India and brought under FCO
1985.
Strengthening Soil Testing Service

The service presently inadequate with a

capacity to analyze only 7m soil samples/
annum against 120 m farm holdings in the
country.
Need to open more soil testing laboratories
at least one each in different districts with
state of art facilities.
The laboratories to participate in the
preparation of geo-referenced soil fertility
maps at district and block levels.
National Commission on Farmers has
recommended additional 1000 advanced soil
testing laboratories in the country.
Periodic Change in Zn Deficiency
P Build-Up in Soils of Punjab
 Organic Carbon Status
Soil organic carbon (SOC) governs soil
productivity and environment.
The earlier studies linked reduced
productivity of the rice-wheat system in IGP
plain with declining soil organic matter (SOM)
content.
The recent studies on SOC build up in soils
over a long period subscribe to a different
school of thought.
The evaluation of large soil test data for 25
years (1981-82 to 2005-06) has revealed
improvement in SOC status by 38 % under
intensive agriculture in Punjab.
 Conclusion
Widespread nutrient deficiencies and deteriorating soil
health are cause of low nutrient use efficiency,
productivity & profitability.
Adoption of site-specific balanced and integrated nutrient
management involving major, secondary and micro
nutrients, organic manures, biofertilizers and
amendments.
Conducive policy environment for more investments in the
fertilizer sector for sustained supplies of fertilizers.
Utilizing all indigenously available nutrient sources to
reduce dependence on imports.
Developing new efficient fertilizer products/ approaches
through state of art R & D applications.
Effective soil testing service to back up precise fertilizer
use.
Creating awareness amongst farmers on benefits of
balanced fertilization.