Pulses as a Key Component in Conservation Agriculture: Impacts on Soil Health and Sustainability
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Intensive agriculture poses several challenges such as soil degradation, reduced soil organic matter, and increased soil nutrient imbalances including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, zinc, iron, and manganese deficiencies and nutrient toxicities (Tiwari KN, 2002). It also contributes to degradation of groundwater quality, declining groundwater levels (Humphreys E et al, 2010), and issues like sodicity and salinization (Tiwari VM et al, 2009), resulting in reduced crop productivity. Many of these limitations can be addressed by adopting conservation agriculture, which supports sustainable productivity while safeguarding natural resources (Sharma AR et al, 2012). Pulses are particularly beneficial in conservation agriculture as they align well with its principles: diversified crop rotations, minimum soil disturbance and continuous soil cover. They serve as a resource-conserving technology that mitigates the adverse impacts of modern agricultural practices.
Institution: Kerala Agricultural University
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404335041