Critical Soil Health Parameters to Improve Crop Production

Integrated nutrient management for sustainable crop production, improving crop quality and soil health, and minimizing environmental pollution

Laboratory, growth chamber and multiyear field studies were conducted with prominent cropping systems of the subtropical northwestern states of India including rice–wheat, rice–mustard, rice–rapeseed, soybean– wheat, soybean–rapeseed, groundnut–wheat, and groundnut–sunflower by including legumes (moongbean, cowpea, sesbania, pigeon pea) to investigate the role of integrated nutrient management ...

Soil Salinisation and Salt Stress in Crop Production

How do we improve crop production in a warming world?

Future agricultural production will encounter multifaceted challenges from global climate change. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere at unprecedented rates, causing increased radiative forcing (Le Quéré et al., 2009; Shindell et al., 2009). Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will increase annual temperatures by 2.5 C to 4.3 C in important cro...

Reimplementation of Moist Soil Testing to Improve the Assessment of Crop-Available Potassium in Iowa Soils

Since 1989 and until the summer of 2012 all soil testing laboratories in Iowa and the USA dried soil samples at 35 to 40 oC (95 to 104 oF) before soil analysis for potassium (K), phosphorus (P), and other nutrients. Since last fall, however, a laboratory that began operations in Iowa is using testing procedures that involve no soil sample drying, and another laboratory is offering moist soil te...

Tillage Effects on Soil Health and Crop Productivity: A Review

The cultivation of agricultural soils has until recently predominantly been achieved by inverting the soil using tools such as the plough. Soil tillage is one of the basic and important components of agricultural production technology. Various forms of tillage are practised throughout the world, ranging from the use of simple stick or jab to the sophisticated para-plough. The practices develope...