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ABSTRACT
Maintaining soil organic carbon (SOC) in arid ecosystem is important for soil productivity and restoration of deserted sandy soil in western plain of India. There is a need to understand how the cropping systems changes may alter SOC pools including total organic carbon (TOC), particulate organic C (POC), water soluble carbon (WSC), very labile C (VLC), labile C (LC), less labile C (LLC) and non-labile C (NLC) in arid climate. We selected seven major agricultural systems for this study viz., barren, fallow, barley–fallow, mustard–moth bean, chickpea–groundnut, wheat–green gram and wheat–pearl millet. Result revealed that conversion of sandy barren lands to agricultural systems significantly increased available nutrients and SOC pools. Among all studied cropping systems, the highest values of TOC (6.12 g kg−1), POC (1.53 g kg−1) and WSC (0.19 g kg−1) were maintained in pearl millet–wheat system, while the lowest values of carbon pools observed in fallow and barren land. Strong relationships (P < 0.05) were exhibited between VLC and LC with available nutrients. The highest carbon management index (299) indicates that wheat–pearl millet system has greater soil quality for enhancing crop productivity, nutrient availability and carbon sequestration of arid soil.
Acknowledgements
The study was funded by ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS & LUP), Nagpur, India in the form of institutional project. The authors are thankful to the Director, NBSS & LUP, Nagpur and the Head, NBSS & LUP Regional Centre, Udaipur for providing facilities for successful completion of the research work.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.