Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Management of Soils - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 328

TABLE 13.10
Soil Type and Use of Production Inputs

Input Good Soil (Deep) Poor Soil (Shallow)

Tillage Normal More passes to loosen the

soil

FYM (cartloads/ha) 5 None

Fertilizer (18-18-10) (kg/ha) (complex) 125 50

Seed Cotton improved and hybrid Cotton local and improved

Hybrid sorghum Hybrid sorghum

Pesticide 2-4 sprays on cotton -

Source: Joshi, P.K., S.P. Wani, and V.K. Chopdi, Economic and Political Weekly (June 29 issue), A-89-
92, 1996.

TABLE 13.11
Production Inputs in Rabi Sorghum-Based Cropping System of Maharashtra
Based on Soil Depth

Management
Practice

Soil Type

Deep Medium Shallow

Variety Maldandi Maldandi Maldandi

Land preparation Two tractor plowings and

harrowings

Two plowings with
bullocks and
harrowings

Two plowings with
bullocks and harrowings

Seeding One or two bowl seed

drills

One or two bowl seed
drills

One bowl seed drill

FYM (t/ha) 10-12 5-12 5-6

Fertilizer (kg/ha) Basal: 100-150 (urea) or

125 ( Suphala 15-15-15)

50 kg (urea) -

Top dressing: 100 (urea) - -

Crop rotation Sorghum + safflower-

pigeon pea or sorghum-
pigeon pea/sunflower/
groundnut

Sorghum-pigeon pea
or sole sorghum

Sole sorghum; rarely
sorghum-pigeon pea

Source: Sohan, L., and D.L. Dent, Effect of soil depth on yield of crop in vertisols. In Land Evaluation
for Land Use Planning . Eds. D.L. Dent and S.B. Deshpande, NBSS & LUP Nagpur, 1993.

improved variety could match the soil depth of the region, and farmers still adopt the
cropping pattern according to the soil depth.

13.6.2 S oil t exture and C rop C hoiCe
In the arid soils of Rajasthan in northwest India, farmers choose the cropping pat-
tern depending on the soil texture. In heavy-texture soils, they keep the land fallow