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The ravine is often regarded as the worst instance of how water erosion is causing land deterioration. The farmers' livelihoods are often threatened by the ravine's expansion into the surrounding 50 m buffer zone, leaving them with no choice except to work as landless workers. Due to the high expense of ravine restoration, it is not economically possible to begin the process of reclamation in all of the ravine lands at once. As a result, it is necessary to recognize the prospective regions to bring in reclamation activities. In this work, the ravine vulnerability index for the Mahi ravine in Western India was developed using a cutting‐edge hybrid methodology. For the development of the ravine vulnerability index, it was determined that the sand, silt, clay, organic carbon, soil erodibility factor, slope, stream power index, topographic wetness index, sediment transport index, and cover factor were crucial components. Weights were applied to various parameters based on the perceived significance of each parameter in relation to another in the decision matrix of the analytical hierarchical process. The number of iterations made to reach a consistency ratio of under 10% to determine the final priority weights for each parameter. The sediment transport index had the lowest priority weight (1.4), whereas the sand had the highest priority weight (28.5). For reclamation purposes, the prospective active zones inside the designated ravine's 50‐m buffer zone, which covered an area of 63,031 acres, were determined. According to the ground truth‐validated ravine vulnerability index, possible reclamation zones were found in the 16,703 ha (26.50%) region of Mahi ravine, which was given extremely high priority. As per the Mahi ravine's land capacity classification, 20,275 ha (32.16%) of it is arable land, and 18,687 ha (29.65%) of it is non‐arable land that is ideal for soil and water conservation treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delineation of management zones (MZs) are needed to manage fields in order to maximize economic return, minimize environmental impact, and improve soil and crop management. The MZs of uniform production potential may offer an effective solution to nutrient management. In this study, a total of 122 geo-referenced representative surface (0–250 mm depth) soil samples were collected from the study area covering an area of 6296 ha. Soil samples were analysed for pH, EC, CaCO3, organic carbon (SOC), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK) and micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu). Their spatial variability was analyzed and spatial distribution maps were constructed using geostatistical techniques. Geostatistical analysis showed that exponential, rational quadratic, tetraspherical, pentaspherical and circular models were the best-fit models for soil properties and available nutrients. Further, geographical weighted principal component analysis (GWPCA) and possibilistic fuzzy C-means (PFCM) clustering algorithm were carried out to delineate the management zones based on optimum clusters identified using fuzzy performance index (FPI) and normalized classification entropy (NCE). The results revealed that the optimum number of MZs for this study area was four and there was heterogeneity in soil nutrients in four MZs. The study indicated that MZ-based soil test crop response recommendation reduces the application quantity of fertilizer significantly at a large extent. Therefore, the management zone concept can reduce agricultural inputs and environmental pollution, and maximize crop production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquaintance of potassium (K) transformation in soil is crucial for K management in management system of arid India. Present study revealed that the extractable K like ammonium acetate–potassium (NH4OAc–K), nitric acid (HNO3)–K, and hydrochloric acid (HCl)–K under different systems were followed the order: irrigated low input > rainfed low input > irrigated high input > no input. The pearl millet systems in irrigated low input practice maintained a higher NH4OAc–K than irrigated high input practice. The exchangeable-K (Exch-K), non-exchangeable-K (Non-exch K) and lattice-K were observed highest in irrigated low input system and lowest in no input system. It is noticed that Exch-K contributed 2.3–2.6% over total-K, which readily available to plants. The Exch-K was highly significant correlated with K pools and soil properties, indicating that rapid establishment of equilibrium between the pools. Thus, knowing K reserve and distribution of K forms can help in understanding K replenishment capacity of arid soil under long-term intensive cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to maintain crop productivity in arid western plain of India, there is a need for understanding the nutrient supplying capacity of soil, which poses many challenges for crop production. We studied four different levels of crop intensification, namely barren land, low, medium and high crop intensity and assessed their impact on soil properties and available nutrients. High intensity showed higher accumulation of available-nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the 0–15 cm depth and then decreased with increasing depths. Higher depletion of available potassium (K) in the surface layer was observed in medium and high cropping intensities. Data indicated that the crop intensification led to an increase in availability of micronutrients. Changes in soil pH and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) had strong influence on the distribution of micronutrients. A highly significant correlation coefficient between available nutrients and organic carbon showed that soil organic matter is the main governing factor for sustainable crop production in arid environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper examines the nature of salt movement by the influence of landscape position and development of secondary salinity in Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana command area of hot arid India. Soil samples were collected along 20 km transect across landscapes of upland, medium land, lowland and wetland. Soil properties, electrical conductivity of saturated extract (ECe), soluble ions in saturated extracts, exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) and sodium adsorption ratio were determined. Results showed that cation exchange capacity, organic carbon and CaCO3 were significantly increased in lowland and wetland while soil pH, salinity indicators (ECe and ESP) and exchangeable cations and anions such as chloride and sulphate were increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the wetland. The mean exchangeable Na was increased while exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K decreased from upland to wetland landscape. It was found that Cl− imposed an existing and potential threat to sensitive crops in medium to wetland, where Cl− concentrations were greater than 106 me L−1. Principal component analysis helped in the identification of the parameters responsible for soil salinity variation, and the first factor indicated that soil ECe and ESP had a major role in the development of salinity and sodicity, respectively. Cluster analysis grouped four sampling sites into three clusters and members of the third cluster (lowland and wetland) were in close proximity. Under the prevalent arid conditions, improving the management of irrigation water should be the indispensable one to conserve and sustain the already fragile agricultural soils in the hot arid regions of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]