Index for refining soil health assessment through multivariate approach under diverse agro-climatic zones in the Indo-Gangetic basin of Bihar.

A fundamental necessity in advancing sustainable crop production lies in the establishment of a reliable technique for assessing soil health. Soil health assessment is a challenge considering multiple interactions among dynamic indicators within various management strategies and agroecological contexts. Hence a study was conducted to determine the soil health variables, quantify the soil health index (SHI), and validate them with the productivity of rice (Oryza sativa L.

Are livelihoods of slum dwellers sustainable and secure in developing economies? Evidences from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh in India.

Objectives: We adopted the Sustainable Livelihood Security (SLS) approach to assess the living conditions of slum dwellers in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Keeping the urban poor at the centre, we attempted to bring out the multidimensional nature of poverty and explored various aspects of the livelihood of slum dwellers.

Methods: We surveyed 900 households from both notified and non-notified slums of Lucknow city to construct the SLS index, keeping the social, economic, infrastructural, health, and micro-environmental aspects of slum dwellers in the background.

Conventional and Zero Tillage with Residue Management in Rice-Wheat System in the Indo-Gangetic Plains: Impact on Thermal Sensitivity of Soil Organic Carbon Respiration and Enzyme Activity.

The impact of global warming on soil carbon (C) mineralization from bulk and aggregated soil in conservation agriculture (CA) is noteworthy to predict the future of C cycle. Therefore, sensitivity of soil C mineralization to temperature was studied from 18 years of a CA experiment under rice-wheat cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). The experiment comprised of three tillage systems: zero tillage (ZT), conventional tillage (CT), and strip tillage (ST), each with three levels of residue management: residue removal (NR), residue burning (RB), and residue retention (R).

Application of Sewage Sludge in a Rice ( L.)-Wheat ( L.) System Influences the Growth, Yield, Quality and Heavy Metals Accumulation of Rice and Wheat in the Northern Gangetic Alluvial Plain.

For a sustainable and profitable agriculture production system, balanced and integrated use of nutrients is a key strategy. In addition, partial replacement of chemical fertilizers with organics ones reduces both environmental concerns and economic costs and provides greater soil health benefits. With this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted to assess the yield and economic benefits of a rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) as influenced by the joint application of sewage sludge (SSL) and fertilizer.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi mediated salt tolerance by regulating antioxidant enzyme system, photosynthetic pathways and ionic equilibrium in pea (Pisum sativum L.).

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an important role in improving the plant tolerance to salt stress. In the present study, we investigated the influence of AM fungi inoculation on various physiological, biochemical and nutritional aspects of pea grown under salt stress. The AM fungi inoculation successfully reduced the negative effects of salinity by improving the antioxidant enzyme system, a greater accumulation of compatible organic solutes, a higher content of photosynthetic pigment and a balanced uptake of nutrients, which resulted in higher growth and yield.

The potential of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in C cycling: a review.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) contribute predominantly to soil organic matter by creating a sink demand for plant C and distributing to below-ground hyphal biomass. The extra-radical hyphae along with glomalin-related soil protein significantly influence the soil carbon dynamics through their larger extent and turnover period need to discuss. The role of AMF is largely overlooked in terrestrial C cycling and climate change models despite their greater involvement in net primary productivity augmentation and further accumulation of this additional photosynthetic fixed C in the soil.