Climate adaptive crop-residue management for soil-function improvement; recommendations from field interventions at two agro-ecological zones in South Asia.

Climate adaptive crop-residue management for soil-function improvement; recommendations from field interventions at two agro-ecological zones in South Asia. Environ Res. 2020 Jan 23;183:109164 Authors: Dey D, Gyeltshen T, Aich A, Naskar M, Roy A Abstract Utilization of biomass energy from various agricultural wastes for local usages and its removal through open burning potentially increase emission of Green House Gases (GHGs), deteriorate air-quality, formation of tropospheric ozone and create trans-boundary health hazards in countries of South East Asia. The effect of common agro-waste management practices in soil quality and agricultural production system over this part of the world is not well documented. In the present three-years long study, spanning over two entirely different agro-ecological zones of India and Bhutan, highlights the impacts of the burning of agricultural waste in soil physio-chemical properties, biological properties and crop production. The current study also focuses on the alternative usage of crop residue to enhance soil organic carbon, soil moisture, soil nutrients and soil biological activity through the application of biochar and raw agricultural waste generated from the field. It was observed that crop residue used as raw mulch and biochar improved the agricultural production up to 36%-64% over the experimental fields of India and Bhutan. The results from the study disseminated among the local farmers a...
Source: Environmental Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Environ Res Source Type: research