Nutrient Management Strategies in Rainfed Agriculture: Constraints and Opportunities

摘要

Dryland soils are not only thirsty but also hungry. Low productivity from rainfed regions is due to water deficit, recurring droughts, degraded lands (mostly affected due to water erosion causing soil loss up to 161 ha~(-1) year~(-1)), poor soil health, water and nutrient stress, multi-nutrient deficiencies, high evaporation rate, low infiltration rate and poor crop management factors. Moisture stress further affects the nutrier availability to the crop since nutrient mobility depends on optimum soil moisture. As top fertile soil layer is eroded in absence of soil cover, low soil organic matter and deficiency of secondary and micronutrient have emerged as important productivity constraints. Therefore, improving nutrient and water use efficiency is crucial for sustainability of rainfed production systems. Hence concerted efforts are needed to develop soil and crop management factors to mitigate the wate and nutrient stress to maximize food production with minimum environmental degradation. Potential yield increase in rainfed agriculture, soil fertility issues, importance of soil health and on farm demonstration of livelihood impacts of balanced and integrated nutrient management and strategies for improving nutrient use efficiency are discussed in the paper.