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Paper presented in World Congress on “Agroforestry, Trees for life: accelerating the impact of agroforestry,” 10-14, Feb 2014, organized by WAC and ICAR at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.Not AvailableNot Availabl

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Vegetation dynamics under different management interventions in arid rangelands of Rajasthan

Watershed rangelands in Northern Afghanistan provide various ecosystem services that support the local people’s livelihoods, but they are now highly degraded essentially due to the continuous high grazing pressure and recurrent droughts. Effects of shrub establishment method enhanced by water harvesting techniques to rehabilitate degraded rangelands have not been well addressed. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of direct seeding and transplanting of seedlings in combination with semi-circular bunds on growth, yield, and survival rate of four shrub species (Atriplex halimus, Atriplex nummularia, Atriplex lentiformis, and Maireana brevifolia) under semi- arid conditions of Sayyad village, Khulm watershed. Survival rate (%), plant height, width, and plant length (cm) and plant cover (%) were measured for each plant over five occasions. A non-destructive reference unit was used to estimate biomass production. The results showed that growth attributes and biomass production of shrubs were consistently greater in the transplanting compared to direct seeding. On average, the plant length, width, height, volume, cover, and biomass production of transplanted shrubs were greater than direct-seeded shrubs by 24.3%, 8.6%, 8.7%, 121.5%, 13.8% and 34.1%, respectively. Biomass production of transplanted seedlings was the highest for A. nummularia (1313.5 g DM/plant) and A. halimus (800 g DM/plant). There was a strong correlation between plant biomass production and plant volume (R2 Plant volume = 0.88) for the shrub A. nummularia, indicating that plant volume is a key variable for assessing biomass production for this species. Additionally, the survival rate of M. brevifolia was 100% in both planting methods, suggesting that based on better survival this halophytic plant has great potential when restoring degraded rangelands

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Not AvailableAn on-farm trial (OFT) was conducted at three farmer's field with three treatments in Lunawas Khara village of Luni Panchayat Samiti in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan during rabi 2011-12 to 2012-13 to assess the impact of line sowing in improving the productivity of cumin (variety GC-4). Technological intervention of line sowing was compared with recommended practice and existing farmers practice for yield maximisation and economic returns from cumin under irrigated condition on sandy loam soil. Results of the study revealed that yield attributes in terms of branches plant', umbels plant', umblets plant' and grain yield plant' increased by 43, 78, 51, and 77%, respectively with technological intervention of line sowing over farmers practice. The grain yield was increased from 458 to 810 kg had during 2011-12 and 502 to 888 kg had during 2012-13 with the technological intervention. The mean grain yield was recorded 77% higher than the farmers practice (480 kg had).Not Availabl

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Not AvailableWind erosion is the most noticeable land degradation process in the hot arid region of India that covers about 16% of the geographical area of India. It results into loss of considerable amount of nutrient-rich particles from the region. Field investigations were carried out in a rangeland site located at Jaisalmer centre of Central Arid Zone Research Institute in the province of western Rajasthan to quantify the nutrient loss through wind erosion. The aeolian mass fluxes (M L-2 T-1) were collected at four different heights: 0.25 m, 0.50 m, 0.75 m, and 2 m above land surface. Analysis of eroded soil was performed using Foss Heraeus CHN-O-rapid elemental analyzer. The results have revealed an average loss of 4 g C kg-1 and 0.37 g N kg-1. Present study shows that the C and N content in eroded soils were highest during the month of July and the accumulated annual loss was approximated as 45.9 kg C ha-1 and 4.3 kg N ha-1. To mitigate such appreciable soil nutrient losses through wind erosion, suitable rangeland utilization practices, which can help to retain the soil health and would also support the crop/grassland productivity in arid ecosystem, need to be evolved on priority.Not Availabl

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Book chapter published in: Livestock Production under diverse constraints: Indian experience in its management (Editor: NSR Sastry).Not AvailableNot Availabl

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Not AvailableWind erosion is the most noticeable land degradation process in the hot arid region of India that covers about 16% of the geographical area of India. It results into loss of considerable amount of nutrient-rich particles from the region. Field investigations were carried out in a rangeland site located at Jaisalmer centre of Central Arid Zone Research Institute in the province of western Rajasthan to quantify the nutrient loss through wind erosion. The aeolian mass fluxes (M L-2 T-1) were collected at four different heights: 0.25 m, 0.50 m, 0.75 m, and 2 m above land surface. Analysis of eroded soil was performed using Foss Heraeus CHN-O-rapid elemental analyzer. The results have revealed an average loss of 4 g C kg-1 and 0.37 g N kg-1. Present study shows that the C and N content in eroded soils were highest during the month of July and the accumulated annual loss was approximated as 45.9 kg C ha-1 and 4.3 kg N ha-1. To mitigate such appreciable soil nutrient losses through wind erosion, suitable rangeland utilization practices, which can help to retain the soil health and would also support the crop/grassland productivity in arid ecosystem, need to be evolved on priority.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableCharacterization of soil water retention, e.g., water content at field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) over a landscape plays a key role in efficient utilization of available scarce water resources in dry land agriculture; however, direct measurement thereof for multiple locations in the field is not always feasible. Therefore, pedotransfer functions (PTFs) were developed to estimate soil water retention at FC and PWP for dryland soils of India. A soil database available for Arid Western India (N=370) was used to develop PTFs. The developed PTFs were tested in two independent datasets from arid regions of India (N=36) and an arid region of USA (N=1789). While testing these PTFs using independent data from India, root mean square error (RMSE) was found to be 2.65 and 1.08 for FC and PWP, respectively, whereas for most of the tested ‘established’ PTFs, the RMSE was >3.41 and >1.15, respectively. Performance of the developed PTFs from the independent dataset from USA was comparable with estimates derived from ‘established’ PTFs. For wide applicability of the developed PTFs, a user-friendly soil moisture calculator was developed. The PTFs developed in this study may be quite useful to farmers for scheduling irrigation water as per soil type.Not Availabl

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