Director,
India would need to produce 350 Mt of food grains to feed the population of 1.41 billion by 2025. Contrary to ever increasing demand for food, the rate of response of crops to added fertilizers is declining year after year. The partial factor productivity of fertilizers decreased from 42 kg grain/kg NPK applied in 1975 to 18 in 1985, to 13 in 1995 and to 8 in 2010. The decline in rate of response of crops to added fertilizer under intensive cropping systems has possibly resulted from deterioration in physical, chemical and biological health of soils. Depletion of soil health in terms of soil organic carbon and available plant nutrients from dryland areas are some of the major threats to the soil productivity and land degradation. To meet the requirement of growing demand of food grains, it is imperative to increase the production potential through improving soil health in rainfed and dryland regions besides the irrigated regions. Balanced and integrated nutrient management was found to be viable technology to sustain higher crop productivity and maintain better soil health under rainfed as well as intensive agriculture systems. Improving soil organic carbon or arresting its depletion coupled with managing emerging multi-nutrient deficiencies are critical issues of dryland soil health. Integrated nutrient management improved the water movement in fine-textured soils while it reduced the water movement in coarse-textured soils through reduction in non-capillary porosity, thereby moderating both the adverse soil moisture conditions. Issues related to soil organic carbon and soil physical, chemical and biological health issues are highlighted along with policy interventions needed for soil health maintenance.
