Assessment of soil organic carbon stock in major land uses of arid-region of Andhra Pradesh, India

In the arid region of Andhra Pradesh, massive degradation of natural resources and extensive changes in land uses resulted in poor crop productivity. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is crucial for maintaining soil quality and sustainability in arid ecosystem. Carbon sequestration has been suggested as a means to mitigate the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Based on that, a study was attempted to assess the SOC stocks in arid part of Andhra Pradesh in different depths of soil profiles for five major land uses viz., scrubland, mango plantation, groundnut, bajra and paddy. Generally, SOC stock showed increasing trend with depth within and among the land uses. Total SOC stocks in different land uses were viz. scrubland (61.09 t ha⁻¹), mango plantation (58.65 t ha⁻¹), groundnut (84.67 t ha⁻¹), bajra (94.84 t ha⁻¹) and paddy (89.50 t ha⁻¹) soils, respectively. Major agricultural crops of the area such as bajra, paddy and groundnut had the highest SOC stock than mango and scrub land use system. The results of this study revealed that aridity and poor nutrient management are caused by low SOC stock than regular agricultural land.