In the food production sector, soil degradation due
to soil salinization and sodification has become one of
the universal concerns agriculture is facing. According
to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations, around the world nearly one billion
hectares of soil were facing severe levels of salinization
and sodification problem that need immediate attention
(FAO, 1994). The problem of soil salinity and sodicity
also leads to desertification (T贸th et al., 2008). In
addition to chemical inorganic amendments like
gypsum, organic amendments are studied for their
efficiency in reclaiming soil sodicity as addition of
organic matter to soil improves soil health through
various beneficial functions, thus helping in effective
reclamation (Roy et al., 2006). Therefore, this study
was conducted in order to investigate the utilisation of
economical organic amendments as sources of soil
sodicity reclamation in comparison with gypsum.An incubation study was conducted at AICRP laboratory, ADAC&RI, Trichy to assess the efficiency of different amendments in reclaiming soil sodicity. Sodic soil samples were treated with different amendments such as inorganic source (gypsum) and organic amendments (vermicompost, green manure, goat manure, poultry manure, coir pith compost and FYM) and at weekly intervals, the physico-chemical properties related with sodicity of the treated soils were analysed. It was found that gypsum was effective in reducing soil sodicity. However, organic amendment such as vermicompost was at par with gypsum in reclamation of soil sodicity.Not Availabl
