Summary
Soil characteristics in the crop root zone are critical to soil water and nutrient availability to rainfed crops and determine crop production in coarse textured soils. A four-year field study was conducted in the foot-hills of North Himalayas near Chandigarh (India) on a coarse textured soil (Gravelly udic ustocrepts) to evaluate the effect of varying soil profile gravel concentration on the yield of rainfed crops of Taramira (Eruca sativa Mill.) in winter followed by maize (Zea mays L.), sorghum (Sorghum vulgare Pers.), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and sesamum (Sesamum indicum L.) in summer. Taramira gave a mean grain yield of 683, 410 and 275 kg ha−1 at gravel concentration (GC) of 18, 28 and 40 percent by volume in the surface one metre soil depth. The grain and forage yield of summer crops decreased with the increasing GC. The gross monetary returns decreased in the order: Sorghum fodder, cowpea, sesamum and maize. The dilution of soil mass with increasing GC and corresponding decrease in nutrient and water holding capacity of the soil appears to have depressed the crop yields. The results indicated that the legume which can also conserve rainwater with dense canopy like cowpea or crops having vigorous fibrous root system and are relatively drought tolerant like sorghum may provide better economic returns in light textured soil containing gravel upto 40 percent.
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Grewal, S.S., Singh, K. & Dyal, S. Soil profile gravel concentration and its effect on rainfed crop yields. Plant Soil 81, 75–83 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02206896
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02206896