Indexing Soil Quality: Under Long-Term Maize-Wheat Cropping System In Acid Alfisol Of North-West Himalayas

The Long-Term Fertilizer Experiments (LTFEs) are invaluable for the study of yield trends, changes in nutrient dynamics and balances, predicting soil carrying capacity, assessing soil quality and system sustainability and risk management. In India, the LTFEs were established in the early seventies of the last century. Since then, these experiments are assessed periodically for the changes of soil fertility or biochemical parameters. In recent years, trends of soil fertility changes in many of the long-term studies in India or elsewhere have been reported from samples obtained after the crop harvest or prior to growing next crop. In contrast, information on the changes in soil quality due to long term application of chemical fertilizers and soil amendments is limited. To fulfill this purpose, present study was designed to study the effect of long-term application of chemical fertilizers and soil amendments on physical, chemical and biological attributes of soil. An attempt was made to develop soil quality index with special reference to crop yield sustainability.