Recycling Organic Wastes for Soil Health and Productivity
Contents: Preface. 1. Utilization of cotton crop industry wastes for sustainable crop production/Blaise Desouza. 2. Recycling crop residues for improved nutrient use efficiency-a case study/Blaise Desouza. 3. Efficient methods of organic wastes recycling for sustainable agriculture/A.B. Singh and A. Subba Rao. 4. Recycling of press mud and spent wash in agriculture/A.K. Biswas. 5. Soil carbon dynamics under long term use of organic manures/Brij Lal Lakaria, Pramod Jha and A.K. Biswas. 6. Recycling of waste and its quality assessment/M.C. Manna. 7. Soil organic matter: decomposition process and stabilization mechanisms/Pramoa Jha, Brij Lal Lakaria and A.K, Biswas. 8. Molecular techniques to explore microbial diversity in soil and environmental samples/Santosh R. Mohanty. 9. Mitigation options for greenhouse gas emission from agriculture fields/Santosh R. Mohanty. 10. Wastes in processing, avenues to value addition/Sunita Singh. 11. Modern instrumental techniques for determination of heavy metals in compost/J.K. Saha. 12. Efficient use of manures composts for sustainable crop production in organic farming/P. Ramesh. 13. Conservation agriculture and crop residues management utilization/Kulasekaran Ramesh. 14. Heavy metal status in different compost and their permissible limits/J.K. Saha. 15. Potential for different on farm and off farm organic resources in India/Sanjay Srivastava. 16. Impact of industrial and city wastes on soil quality/N,R. Panwar. 17. Phytoremediation of heavy metals from contaminated soils/S. Ramana and A.B. Singh. 18. Organics as important component in integrated nutrient management for enhancing long-term productivity and nutrient use efficiencies/Muneshwar Singh and R.H. Wnajari. 19. Soil fertility management and soil quality under organic farming/A. Subba Rao, P. Ramesh, K. Sammi Reddy, A.B. Singh and K. Ramesh. 20. Recycling organic materials as soil amendments/L.L. Somani, F.M. Qureshi, U.S. Rawat and S.L. Mundra. Subject Index.
The continuous use of high levels of chemical fertilizers is adversely affecting the sustainability of agricultural production and causing environmental pollution. There is a decline in the productivity of crops, despite the application of optimum levels of fertilizer inputs under assured irrigation. Constraint analysing has identified the declining organic mater status as a probable reason. It is in this context that the supplementation of organic along with chemical fertilizers is a decisive viable strategy.
In coming decades a major issue in designing sustainable agriculture system will be the management of soil organic matter and the rational use of inorganic inputs along with animal manures, crop residues, green manures, sewage sludge and food industry wastes. However, since organic wastes cannot meet the total nutrient needs of modern agriculture, integrated use of nutrients from fertilizers and organic wastes seems to be a need of the time. Sustainable plant nutrition to increase food production has been identified as one of the priorities directly linked to land and water management resources in relation to environment. Therefore, the soil health is very important to achieve national food security targets for sustainable growth.
Indian agriculture is operating at a net negative balance of plant nutrients at the rate of 8-10 million tonnes/annum. At least 10 million tonnes nutrients should come from organic manures crop residues and bio-degradable wastes. Thus, food security is very much linked with nutrient input. India is endowed with enormous potential for plant nutrients locked up in the bio-degradable wastes. A total quantity of around 875 million tones of these so-called waste material is available in the country, which can supply 18.45 million tones of nutrients annually. This book orients towards recycling of biodegradable organic wastes for improved soil productivity. (jacket)
