000			02679nam a2200217 4500
003			OSt
005			20250129143213.0
008			250129b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
040			_cUAS Dharwad
041			_aEnglish
082			_a630 _bRAD
100			_aRadder Varsha Somaraddi
245			_aStudies on Soil Quality Under Natural Farming and Farmers Practice in Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka
250			_aM.Sc. (Agri)
260			_aDharwad _bUniversity of Agricultural Sciences _c2024
300			_a163 _c32 Cms
520			_aABSTRACT Natural farming enriches soil by increasing microbial diversity, enhancing organic matter content and promoting soil structure stability. It reduces erosion, improves water retention and mitigates nutrient loss. This research was conducted to study soil quality in <5, 5-10 and 10-15 years under natural farming and farmers practice at 0-20 cm soil depth in three natural farming clusters of Belagavi district in Northern dry zone (Zone 3) of Karnataka during 2022-23. This study revealed that, natural farming had positive effect on soil physical, chemical and biological properties than the farmers practice. Bulk density under natural farming decreased over time (1.34 to 1.28 Mg m-3) but increased under farmers practice (1.40 to 1.46 Mg m-3). Soil porosity, MWHC and aggregate stability improved with natural farming (49.65% to 51.74%, 49.85% to 52.19% and 54.39% to 56.69%) respectively, but decreased under farmers practice (47.53% to 45.23%, 47.68% to 45.20% and 51.89% to 49.51%). Soil pH and electrical conductivity decreased whereas organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur levels increased over time in natural farming but in farmers practice decreased. Exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, Na, K) and cation exchange capacity increased significantly under natural farming than under farmers practice. Dehydrogenase activity was more under natural farming in <5, 5-10 and 10-15 years than farmers practice. Soil quality index (SQI) values were highest in natural farming (0.89, 0.92 and 0.97) than farmers practices (0.87,0.85 and 0.78) in <5, 5-10 and 10-15 years but the value was highest (0.97) in 10-15 years category under natural farming which is superior over 5-10 and <5 years. The SQI values under natural farming belongs to very good class and good class under farmers practices. Overall, natural farming showed improvements in soil health over the years while farmers practices resulted in decline in soil quality.
650			_aSoil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
700			_aYadahalli Vidyavathi G.
942			_cTH _eM.Sc. (Agri) _h630 _kRAD _n0 _6630_000000000000000
999			_c70757 _d70757