Grasslands of Arid Kachchh, India: Present Status and Management Strategies for Higher Productivity

The hot arid region covers an area of 31.70 million hectares in India, covering seven states that include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The arid region in Gujarat is distributed in eight districts namely, Kachchh (100% of the district area), Jamnagar (80%), Surenderanagar (29%), Junagadh (20%), Banaskantha (18%), Mehsana (7%), Ahmadabad (6%) and Rajkot (6%). Gujarat accounts for 19.6% of the total arid zone in the country of which Kachchh district alone accounts for more than 70% arid area of the state (Shamsudheen et al., 2009). Under the conditions of low and erratic precipitation, high evapotranspiration and poor soil physical and fertility conditions, grasses and trees form the major vegetation that make natural rangelands and hence grasslands form one of the major ecosystem types in Kachchh. There are two major unique grassland ecosystems in Kachchh, namely Banni and Naliya. Banni, once referred as Asia`s finest grasslands cover an area of 2,617.72 km2 constituting 51.56% grassland area in Kachchh whereas Naliya grassland is covered in 654 km2 (12.89%) (GEER GUIDE, 2011). Banni alone constitute 45% of the permanent pasture and 10% of the grazing land available in Gujarat state (Patel, 2013). However these grasslands are under degraded condition due to biotic and abiotic factors including climatic factors, overgrazing, invasion of Prosopis juliflora, construction of dams and salinity ingress (Dayal et al., 2009b). To revive the grasslands introduction of native and potential alternate grasses are needed along with scientific management practices (Dayal et al., 2009a). The objective of this paper is to highlight the current status of research findings on measures to improve grassland productivity of rangelands in Kachahh region

The impact of conservation tillage on soil quality and potential for climate change mitigation

Conservation tillage is generally considered as an important component of sustainable agriculture. The benefits of conservation tillage have been presented as reducing runoff, enhancing water retention and preventing soil erosion. There is also general agreement that it can be used to conserve and enhance soil organic carbon levels to some extent. However, its applicability in mitigating climate change has been extensively debated, especially when the whole profile of carbon in soil is considered along with a reported risk of enhanced N2O emissions under conservation tillage. The suitability of conservation tillage in mitigating climate change and enhancing carbon sequestration is addressed in this research in an integrated approach combining characterisation of the soil porous architecture and other chemical and biological properties. Novel analytical tools such as X-ray Computed Tomography were used to characterise the 3-D soil pore network under conservation tillage for the first time. The study indicated zero tilled soils had a lower net emission of greenhouse gases on a CO2 equivalent basis indicating potentially zero tillage can be used to mitigate climate change. The net global warming potential under conventional tillage was 20% higher than zero tilled soil. A model developed to predict the greenhouse gas emissions from soil found that soil pore characteristics such as porosity played a significant role in the emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and CH4 among other factors such as microbial biomass carbon, bulk density and shear strength. Soil porosity alone accounted for 39.7% of the total variation for CO2 flux which was larger than any other parameter including microbial biomass carbon and soil carbon. Soil pore characteristics were revealed as one of the important determinant in aiding the GHG flux in soil. However N2O emission from soil was mainly dependent on soil moisture, microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass nitrogen. It was also found that zero tilled soils contained 9% more soil carbon and 30% higher microbial biomass carbon than the tilled soil. It was found that tillage mediated aggregate changes could bring changes in carbon storage in soil depending on texture of soil. Increased microbial activity was evident at zero tilled soils as observed from the increased activities of hydrolysing and oxidising enzymes. The preservation of aromatic structures during residue decomposition might have contributed to enhanced sequestration of carbon under zero tilled soils as revealed by the FTIR data. The study indicates that soil management practices strongly influence other properties and by making a suitable choice of the tillage system, a comparative reduction in greenhouse gas emissions could be achieved at the same time enhancing sequestration of carbon

The impact of conservation tillage on soil quality and potential for climate change mitigation

Conservation tillage is generally considered as an important component of sustainable agriculture. The benefits of conservation tillage have been presented as reducing runoff, enhancing water retention and preventing soil erosion. There is also general agreement that it can be used to conserve and enhance soil organic carbon levels to some extent. However, its applicability in mitigating climate change has been extensively debated, especially when the whole profile of carbon in soil is considered along with a reported risk of enhanced N2O emissions under conservation tillage. The suitability of conservation tillage in mitigating climate change and enhancing carbon sequestration is addressed in this research in an integrated approach combining characterisation of the soil porous architecture and other chemical and biological properties. Novel analytical tools such as X-ray Computed Tomography were used to characterise the 3-D soil pore network under conservation tillage for the first time. The study indicated zero tilled soils had a lower net emission of greenhouse gases on a CO2 equivalent basis indicating potentially zero tillage can be used to mitigate climate change. The net global warming potential under conventional tillage was 20% higher than zero tilled soil. A model developed to predict the greenhouse gas emissions from soil found that soil pore characteristics such as porosity played a significant role in the emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and CH4 among other factors such as microbial biomass carbon, bulk density and shear strength. Soil porosity alone accounted for 39.7% of the total variation for CO2 flux which was larger than any other parameter including microbial biomass carbon and soil carbon. Soil pore characteristics were revealed as one of the important determinant in aiding the GHG flux in soil. However N2O emission from soil was mainly dependent on soil moisture, microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass nitrogen. It was also found that zero tilled soils contained 9% more soil carbon and 30% higher microbial biomass carbon than the tilled soil. It was found that tillage mediated aggregate changes could bring changes in carbon storage in soil depending on texture of soil. Increased microbial activity was evident at zero tilled soils as observed from the increased activities of hydrolysing and oxidising enzymes. The preservation of aromatic structures during residue decomposition might have contributed to enhanced sequestration of carbon under zero tilled soils as revealed by the FTIR data. The study indicates that soil management practices strongly influence other properties and by making a suitable choice of the tillage system, a comparative reduction in greenhouse gas emissions could be achieved at the same time enhancing sequestration of carbon

Wild Halophyte Plants as Potential Fodder Resource under Extreme Saline Environment of Kachchh, Gujarat, India

Rann of Kachchh in North West India is a unique saline marshy desert. It is described as a desolate area of unrelieved, sun-baked saline clay desert, shimmering with the images of a perpetual mirage (Mountfort et al., 1991) and is regarded as the largest salt desert in the world. In the Indian part it stretches in 7505.22 sq. km known as Great Rann and 4,953 sq. km known as Little Rann. The Ranns turns into marshy land by inundated water from runoff during monsoonal rainfall and water driven by forces of winds and tides from Arabian Sea making the area unapproachable especially during June to September and in reminder of months the area remain as a hyper saline desert. Even at these extreme saline conditions certain halophytic plants come up from the native seed bank/ roots once the water gets evaporated as these plants possess some mechanisms to survive salinity even higher than that of sea water (Goswami et al., 2014). Some of these plants are grazed by livestock of the area. Due to uncontrolled grazing by ever increasing livestock population and increasing demand for fuel wood, in these deserts the natural diversity of these halophytes are at stake (Arndt et al., 2004). Information on the diversity of halophytes in the hyper saline desert in relation to varying degree of salinization is not available. Therefore the present study was undertaken to study the distribution of halophyte grasses and non-grasses in Great Rann of Kachchh and their usefulness as fodder resource

Energy budgeting and life cycle assessment of cashew cultivation under different planting densities

Energy budgeting is important for determining the sustainability and vulnerability of a crop production system. In the present study, an assessment of the energy requirements for cashew cultivation under three different planting densities was carried out during 2015-20. The study revealed that the total input energy consumption for cashew cultivation ranged from 75292.68 to 120903.58 MJ/ha. The energy productivity from 0.04 to 0.13 kg/MJ and energy use efficiency varied from 8.46 to 24.61% under three planting densities. The highest energy was consumed in terms of chemical fertilizers for all the planting densities followed by fuel (diesel), machinery, farmyard manure (FYM), pesticides, petrol and human energy. The analysis revealed the need to implement improved management practices to enhance the energy efficiency by reducing the energy consumption in inputs, by optimizing energy consumption and/or improving the crop yield by optimizing the cultivation methods and switching from non-renewable sources to renewable sources of energy. Among the three different planting densities, 2.5x2.5 m spacing consumed the highest energy followed by 5x5 m and 7.5x7.5m spacing. However, the planting density of 2.5x2.5 m spacing was more energy efficient over the years due to more yields per unit area

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Nutrient and water management in cashew

Not AvailableNot AvailableRKVY-RAFTAAR, Karnatak