Soil sickness and productivity from ecological aspects

Abstract

The problem of soil sickness has been emerged in major cropping system of India mostly due to the cultivation of same crop over a long period of time. Even after a good nutritional status in soil, it does not give its potential in crop production due to certain reasons indicating the prevalence of soil sickness. It reduces the amount of yield along with its quality of many agronomic and vegetable crops. The reasons behind the soil sickness could be autotoxicity due to release of allelochemicals by plant species, continuous monocropping, use of agrochemicals and others. These all factors destroy the proper balance of soil nutrients including micronutrients, composition and activities of soil microorganisms, disruption in rhizosphere soil homeostasis, soil physicochemical properties, and infestation of insect-pest and diseases specifically soil borne diseases. Therefore, it’s very imperative to intensify the farming system more sustainably by diversifying crops’ cultivation, preventing use of harmful agrochemicals, and by moderating crop’s autotoxicity