5 Ways To Improve Soil Fertility
How To Improve Soil Fertility? We all know that we get all types of food directly or indirectly from the plant, but we need soil to grow plants, but not all soil types are suitable for plant growth, so there is some way to improve soil fertility.
There are various strategies that are usually adopted to hold the fertility of the soil. Following are the 5 ways to improve soil fertility:
1. Mixed Cropping
Mixed Cropping means that two or more crops are cultivated together in the same field during the same crop season. For example, wheat and mustard are cultivated together and they grow simultaneously on the same ground. In mixed cropping, the ideal utilization of the nutrients present in the soil is made.
2. Crop Rotation
Crop rotation refers to the cultivation of different crops each year in the same field. such as, if wheat is cultivated for this running year on certain land, the next year, the land will be cultivated in another crop instead of wheat.
If the same crop is repeatedly cultivated in the same field, then the fertility strength of the land is reduced, because of the cultivation of the same nutrients consumed by soil every year.
On the other hand, If different crops are cultivated in the same field each year, then since different crops require different nutrients and in different proportions, balanced utilization of the nutrients results, and the soil does not become deficient in a particular type of nutrients.
3. Deep Taproot Plants
Different crops have different depths of the root zone. The taproot plants are advantageous as they can absorb more water and nutrients from the soil. In this way, water, as well as nutrient deficiency can be eliminated for shallow-rooted plants. Thus, by combining shallow-rooted crops and deep-rooted crops in the rotation of crops the ideal utilization of the nutrients available in the soil is made.
4. Applying Fertilizer
If there is a deficiency of some nutrients in the soil, we must think about it first. If there is any possibility of replenishing such nutrients naturally, it should be implemented first. If not, you have to think about applying fertilizers. The optimum use of fertilizers can increase nutrients in the soil needed for crops to grow efficiently.
There are several advantages of applying fertilizer to the land, like – it can improve the metabolism of plants, it is easily absorbed by plants, it helps in faster growth of crops, etc. But, before applying fertilizer to your land, you should take care of the quantity. Overuse of fertilizers can damage your crops.
5. Keeping The Land Fallow
If the land is left fallow (if some land is left uncultivated), then it allows the soil of that land to regain its natural nutrient capacity.
Read Also:
Core Cutter Method For Determination of Field Density
Mohr-Coulomb Failure Theory(Criterion)
13 Advantages and Disadvantages of Drip Irrigation System
