Study of soil microbial activity in different silvi-horti-agricultural system under rainfed plateau conditions of Jharkhand

Abstract

An attempt was made at ICAR RCER, Research Centre, Ranchi to study the microbial population in soil in an already established 4 years old silvi-horti-agricultural system during 2018-2019. The study was laid out in split plot design with four treatments and four replications. Results revealed that the microbial population was significantly affected under different systems due to the presence of filler crops and the agricultural crops under different silvi-horti-agricultural system. The maximum number of fungal colonies and bacterial cells were observed under all silvi-horti-agricultural systems in comparison to the fallow/sole crop system. Among the different silvi-horti-agricultural system, mango + mahogany + peach system has the highest value. The highest dehydrogenase activity was recorded in mango + mahogany + peach system (11.25 micro gram TPF 24 hr-1 gm-1).