Pradip Dey

• Ph.D.
• Director at ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute

Coir pith, a major byproduct of the coconut processing industry, has traditionally been considered a low-value waste due to its high lignin content and imbalanced carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio. These properties make it highly resistant to microbial degradation, leading to prolonged accumulation, methane emissions and toxic leachate generation. How...

Climate change presents a significant challenge to global agriculture, impacting food security, crop productivity, and natural resources. While agriculture contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it also holds the potential to act as a carbon sink through regenerative practices. Regenerative agriculture, characterized by sustainable soil man...

Background: Green gram, also known as “mungbean” is rich in protein and vitamins. Either chemical fertilizers or organic manures alone may not suffice to meet the nutrient demand with sustenance of soil health. Hence, soil test based fertilizer prescription for green gram becomes need of the hour. Methods: Fertilizer prescription equations (FPEs) w...

Balanced nutrition will be rewarding to profitable and sustainable yield of Kodo millet. In this context, soil test crop response (STCR) experiments on kodo millet were conducted from 2020 to 2022 to assess relationships between yield, soil, plant, and fertilizer nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and calibrate optimum nutrient doses f...

Soybean-wheat sequence, one of the most vital cropping systems for farmers, has been suffering for productivity stagnation and decline due to several factors. Strategic management of the inputs particularly the nutrients could aid the crops achieve optimum growth and yield. Keeping this in mind, four years of field experiment was conducted to study...

Soil salinity and sodicity cause major reductions in crop productivity and quality, reduce the area of land available for cultivation, and present devastating environmental stresses for humanity (Yamaguchi and Blumwald, 2005; Shahbaz and Ashraf, 2013). The world population is increasing rapidly and global food production has to be continually incre...

Introduction Enhancing soil health and nutrient levels through fertilizers boosts agricultural productivity and global food security. However, careful fertilizer use is essential to prevent environmental damage and improve crop yields. The soil test crop response (STCR) is a scientific approach to fertilizer recommendation that ensures efficient us...

Achieving an optimal balance of nutrients is crucial for sustainable agriculture. In this context, soil test crop response (STCR) experiments on kodo millet were conducted from 2020–2022 to assess relationships between yield, soil, plant, and fertilizer nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and calibrate optimum fertilizer doses for attai...

Striking the right nutrient balance is essential for sustainable farming and ecosystem health. In this regard, field experiments were conducted in three phases viz., fertility gradient experiment, main experiment and validation experiment through a soil test crop response approach to develop and validate fertilizer prescription equations for sweet...

The study examines multi-nutrient extractants' ability to measure available phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrient cations in Alfisols red soils, aiming to improve soil testing for sustainable agriculture. Objective: The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of various multi-nutrient extractants in determining the levels of availab...

The long-term impact of soil test crop response integrated plant nutrient supply (STCR-IPNS) is considered crucial for increasing nutrient use efficiency and productivity of pearl millet-wheat cropping system (PWCS) for sustainability. The standard methodology was used to determine the long-term effect of fertilizers and manures with respect to con...

In the race to increase production, it is imperative to optimize the use of fertilizers through the soil test crop response (STCR)approach. The study was conducted to determine the sound basis of fertilizer prescription for okra at different soil fertility levels and the biochemical changes in the soil. This experiment was executed in three phas...

Integrated farming (IF) by temporal and spatial mixing of crops, livestock, fishery, and allied activities in a single farm, is considered a critical multifunctional option for smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of Indian agriculture, to ensure sustainable livelihoods, the productivity of agricultural enterprises, stability of farm income,...

Improving edible oilseed production is a need of the hour to ensure food security in India. Numerous efforts were made to fasten these efforts, including implementation of Cluster Frontline Demonstration (CFLDs). In this initiative, the groundnut crop has also been promoted in various parts of India in the form of CFLD under different agro-ecologic...

The long-term impact of soil test crop response integrated plant nutrient supply (STCR-IPNS) is considered crucial for increasing nutrient use efficiency and productivity of pearl millet-wheat cropping system (PWCS) for sustainability. The standard methodology was used to determine the long-term effect of fertilizers and manures with respect to con...

A field experiment was conducted to formulate targeted yield equations for bottle gourd under a rice-vegetable cropping system in an Inceptisol of Odisha. The experiment started with the creation of three soil fertility gradient stripes by applying no fertilizer, recommended dose and double the Original Research Article 224 recommended dose of fert...

An integratd farming system (IFS) is characterized by temporal and spatial mixing of crops, livestock, fishery, and allied activities in a single farm. It is hypothesized that this complex farm is more productive at a system level and less vulnerable to volatility. It ensures nutrient cycling within the system through a synergistic resource transfe...

Soil constitutes the largest dynamic reservoir of carbon on earth which makes it a critical component of the global carbon cycle. The proportion of C in various labile pools is more important with respect to the nutrient availability and C sequestration in soils. Hence, to study the carbon dynamics under various nutrient management strategies, an i...

Land degradation dominated the global discourse of limiting livelihoods, food security and ecosystem services. However, its effect is more pronounced in problem soils, rain-fed areas, fragile ecosystems, common property resources and dryland areas—and climate change has exacerbated the risk further. Strategies to reverse land degradation and initia...

India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of chilli in Southern India covering 20 percent of the total area. The imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers has detrimental effect on soil physico-chemical and biological properties thereby affecting soil and crop quality. In accordance with this concept, the field experiments were conducted to...

Arsenic (As), a heavy metal(loid), is exceedingly hazardous and carcinogenic and harms people, soil, plants, and water. Vegetable consumption can be a source for the absorption of As in humans. To find a feasible mitigation technique, a field experiment was conducted with broccoli (cv. Green Magic) and cauliflower (cv. Pusa Snowball) in geogenicall...

To assess the effects of soil fertility gradient on crop yield, nutrient uptake, and soil fertility, a field experiment was conducted on an oat crop at Norman. E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre, G.B.U.A.&T, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India during rabi 2020–21. The experimental field was partitioned into three identical strips. In strip I, N0P0K0 was app...

To develop targeted yield-based integrated nutrient recommendation of sesame, soil test-based crop response field studies on major nutrients were undertaken during two consecutive seasons (2016 and 2017) in an Inceptisol. For this, quantitative estimations of basic parameters viz. nutrient requirement (NR), percentage contribution of nutrients from...

A field experiment was conducted at Research Farm of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during kharif 2018 to refine the pre-existing fertilizer prescription equations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P2O5) and potassium (K2O) for Bt. cotton hybrids and its validation was done at different locations of semi-arid regions of Haryana with the aim...

Balanced crop nutrition will be rewarding to profitable sustainable yield and soil quality.To develop and validate fertilizer prescription equation for foxtail millet under dryland farming situation by encompassing the Soil Test Crop Response approach (STCR), field experiments were conducted at Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka, University of Agricultu...

An experiment was conducted during 2020-21 and 2021-22 in the tarai region of Uttarakhand in order to find simple, economical, effective, and plant uptake correlated soil test methods for determining the available nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Before sowing of groundnut and wheat, soil samples were collected to evaluate available nitrogen,...

Soil pollution arising from either inorganic or organic sources causes undesirable change in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil and affects the environment as well as plant and human life through the food chain. Major inorganic contaminants include heavy metals, radionuclides, nanoparticles and asbestos, whereas organ...

The reliability of the methods used in conventional farming for determining immediately available phosphorus (P) might not be suitable for organic farming, where mineralization of labile organic pools is the prime P source for plant availability. A conventional procedure that involves P extraction downplays the significance of organic pools. This n...

The scope of horizontal expansion of cultivated area is limited, as the competition for scarce land resources between agriculture and urban interests are leading to a decline in per capita land availability. All these factors contribute to the need for an increasing intensity of agricultural production. One such opportunity exists in rice–fallow ar...

A study was conducted of five locations in village-Parsiya, Naugarh block of district-Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh during Rabi-2019 to evaluate the model through Soil Test Crop Response (STCR). Among the treatments were control, blanket recommendation, STCR-based fertilizer doses for yield objectives of 16 and 20 q ha-1 , and farmer's practice. Fertili...

A field experiment was conducted at Research Farm of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during kharif 2018 to refine the pre-existing fertilizer prescription equations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P 2 O 5) and potassium (K 2 O) for Bt. cotton hybrids and its validation was done at different locations of semi-arid regions of Haryana with the...

A field experiment was conducted in an Aquic hapludoll at D7 block of Norman E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (29° N Latitude and 79°29’ E Longitude), as the per technical program of All India Coordinated Research Project on Soil Test Crop Response Correlation to study the effect of s...

Ensuring food security and simultaneously maintaining environmental integrity has become a major challenge in modern agriculture. Quantification of trade-offs between productivity, fertilizer use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture is important for the development of management strategies to ensure food security and environmental sust...

Long-term food security necessitates striking a balance between enhancing crop productivity, restoring soil fertility, and maintaining environmental health. The most practical method to achieve this equilibrium is to conjoint both inorganic and organic plant nutrients. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted in randomized block design (RBD) wit...

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a greenhouse gas which is 273 times more potent in global warming than CO2 and agriculture contributes more than two third of its emission. Reducing its emission is a challenge to modern intensive agriculture heavily dependent on synthetic fertilizer. Nitrification inhibitors (NIs), synthetic as well as natural, act on the am...

Soil phosphorous (P) can limit plant growth due to its fixation which stipulates the changes occuring due to imbalanced fertilization in pearl millet-wheat system. The study was aimed to identify the long-term effect of fertilizers and manures on availability of P due to changes in soil inorganic (Pi) and organic P (Po) pools at 0–15, 15–30, 30–60,...

Farmer' Participatory On Farm Trials (FP-OFT) were conducted at 10 different locations in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh during rabi 2016-17 in medium black soils to study the influence of soil test crop response (STCR) approach vis-a-vis farmers' practice on productivity and economics of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Result revealed that tar...

Soil proximal sensing technologies provide an excellent opportunity for rationalizing input use. This paper critically reviews the current technologies available for soil and crop sensors and suggests effective, economically attractive alternatives for conventional methodologies. It also sheds light on the different types of sensors, including hand...

In arid and semi-arid sub-tropical regions of India, pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.]—wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cropping system is the most important system under irrigated conditions. However, it is very exhaustive cropping system and productivity of pearl millet-wheat system has become constant or marginally declined for the last...

Soil Test Crop Response (STCR) study was conducted during 2015-16 for rice (cv. ADT 45) under integrated plant nutrition system (IPNS) in Inceptisols (Typic Ustropept) in Karikkalampakkam village of U.T of Puducherry. Using the basic data, fertilizer adjustment equations have been developed for prescribing optimum fertilizer doses to attain differe...

Three fertility gradient stripes were created in Inceptisols of Odisha by applying no fertilizer, recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) and double of the RDF and rice was grown during kharif, 2018 in the Central Research Farm of OUAT, Bhubaneswar. These three stripes were subdivided into 24 sub-plots and cucumber was grown with different graded dose...

To develop the fertilizer prescription equations based on soil test crop response approach for rice–rice, field experiments were conducted at farmer’s field in Arachikuppam village, U.T of Puducherry. Soil test data, yield and NPK uptake by rice–rice were used for obtaining four important basic parameters, viz. nutrient required to produce one quin...

Background: Soil fertility evaluation is much imperative in order to sustain soil fertility and also food grain production in long run. A study was undertaken across five agro ecological zones of Kerala comprising nine districts viz., Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Kannur with the ai...

Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is emerging as one of the most promising technologies, as it is a rapid and cost-effective alternative to routine laboratory analysis for many soil properties. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of mid-infrared spectroscopy for the rapid and nondestructive measurement of some important soil properties...

A long-term experiment was conducted for 8 years to assess the impact of imbalance and balance fertilization based on soil test-based nutrient management practices on different carbon fractions, carbon (C) stocks, sequestration, C indexes and soil quality under Jute-rice-lentil cropping system in subtropical India. The 10 treatments were laid out i...

The vulnerability of the highly contagious coronavirus pandemic has bushwhacked the entire world and crippled the global development to a tremendous medical emergency. All the vital sectors of society as the agriculture, industry, trade and economics, education have perceived serious blows. The medical research for suitable medications are underway...

The profitable production of cabbage is primarily constrained by improper irrigation and fertilizer management. A field experiment comprising of four drip irrigation levels (0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% of ASMD) and four fertilizer levels (RDF @ 150:60:90, STCR50 @ 215:115:150, STCR55 @ 258:148:203 and farmers’ conventional dose @ 92:240:240 kg NPK ha−1)...

Under intensive cropping sequence, soil testing for each crop, season after season and prior to the cultivation of each crop seems to be practically impossible for want of time, money and labour. Field experiment was carried out to predict the post-harvest soil fertility status ofkharif rice (IET 4786) on an Inceptisolusing the pre-sowing soil test...

Soil health is important to sustain higher productivity of crops and cropping systems. Considering the importance of soil health for ensuring future food and nutritional security, Government of India started a Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme and has been issuing the SHCs to educate the farmers about the importance of soil and usefulness of balanced n...

Organic agriculture is bereft of a dedicated, easy to handle and real-time-computing soil testing method to correctly estimate available nitrogen (N) status in soil. The present study attempts to develop a suitable N availability index in organically fertilized French bean after a 3-year aromatic rice-French bean-okra cropping cycle. Farmyard manur...

The selection of best interpolation technique to assess soil physico-chemical properties of any unsampled location is very important. In this study, the main objective was to compare and analyze the inverse distance weighting (IDW), ordinary kriging (OK), and spline to determine the suitable interpolation technique for mapping soil properties. Rela...

Sustainability of cereal-based cropping system is important for the livelihood and food security in semi-arid regions. The present study explores the impact of long-term organic and inorganic nutrients and integrated fertilization practices of soil test crop response (STCR) approach of inductive-cum-targeted yield model on soil physical properties...

Two experiments were conducted to determine the cotton plant’s tolerance to Pb and its remediation potential. In the first experiment, the phytoremediation potential was determined by exposing the plant to four levels of Pb (0, 500, 750, and 1000 mg kg⁻¹). The cotton plant exhibited an excellent tolerance index at Pb 1000 mg kg⁻¹ (root 78.65% and s...

Field experiments were conducted during 2017 – 2018 to develop fertiliserprescriptions equations (FPEs) through IPNS for the desired yield targets ofChrysanthemum on Udic Haplustalf . The fertilisers prescription equations(FPEs) were developed under NPK alone and under IPNS for the desiredyield target of Chrysanthemum by using the basic parameters....

Despite several implications of excessive nitrogen (N) use on environment, information on effect of elevated carbon dioxide (CO 2) and/or temperature on recovery and use efficiency of applied N are limited. Hence, this field study was carried out for three consecutive seasons of wheat crop during 2016− 17 to 2018− 19 in Open Top Field chambers (OTC...

The present research was conducted to study the potential of cotton for the remediation of soils contaminated with Cd, to understand the biochemical basis of its tolerance to, and to investigate the plant-microbe interaction in the rhizosphere for enhancement of phytoextraction of Cd. Cotton (Bt RCH-2) was exposed to four Cd levels (0, 50, 100, and...

The major agricultural challenges in the developing world are in ensuring food and nutritional security, improving soil health and maintaining environmental quality. Reduced usage of organics, imbalanced fertilizer use, inherent soil constraints and emerging nutrient deficiencies are the major contributors of poor soil health. The hotspots of N fer...

Soils of Subarnapur district and improvement of crop productivity in tribal villages through adoption of STCR technology

In the present study, we evaluated Furcraea foetida for the phytoremediation of cadmium (Cd)-contaminated soils. We selected F. foetida because it is a drought-resistant plant, produces high biomass, and needs minimum maintenance. It belongs to the leaf fiber group of plants and therefore has economic importance. Since it is a non-edible crop, ther...

A dedicated soil testing method for estimating available nitrogen (N) in organic production system is currently lacking. In this backdrop, an innovative approach was initiated to develop a suitable method for assessing potentially mineralisable nitrogen (PMN) as N availability index in organically fertilised soils. To address the objective, a field...

Agave americana was evaluated for its phytoremediation potential of the soils contaminated with Cd. This plant was selected because of its drought tolerance and high biomass. The pot culture experiment was carried with five levels of cadmium (0, 25, 50,100, and 200 mg Cd kg soil⁻¹). Parameters, viz. uptake, translocation factor (TF), translocation...

A field experiment was conducted for three years during kharif, 2017-18 to 2019-20 at the Regional Sugarcane and Rice Research Station, Rudrur, Nizamabad district of the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University, Telangana State, under All India Coordinated Research Project on the soil test crop response correlation. The experime...

Field level demonstrations were conducted in rice crop at twenty six different locations to assess the validity of soil test based fertilizer application with a target yield of 60 q ha-1 in Telangana State. The mean initial soil fertility status of different fields was 198 kg N, 60 kg P and 337 kg K ha-1. To achieve a target yield 60 q ha-1 as per...

Field experiments were conducted from 2015-16 to 2017-18 on a Typic Rhodustalfs (Alfisol) soils of Telangana at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem, Nagarkurnool, Southern Telangana Zone, India to validate targeted yield based fertilizer prescription equations which developed for hybrid castor by adopting eight treatments viz., Blanket re...

Finding a suitable method for estimating soil and crop specific potassium (K) bioavailability under variable range of soil fertility has been a mighty challenge. To undermine this, a field experiment was conducted under varying levels of fertilizer application on pre-established fertility gradient strips in the Indo-Gangetic plains of West Bengal,...

The demonstrations on on-farm fertility management through desired yield target were conducted with castor and maize crops at 15 farmers' fields during rabi 2016-17 at Peddatanda and Sainapally tanda of Nagarkurnool District, Telangana to improve sustenance of tribal farmers and to verify the fertilizer prescription models & to analyze the economic...

Field experiments were conducted from 2015-16 to 2017-18 on a Typic Rhodustalfs (Alfisol) soils of Telangana at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem, Nagarkurnool, Southern Telangana Zone, India to validate targeted yield based fertilizer prescription equations which developed for hybrid castor by adopting eight treatments viz., Blanket re...

Soil Test Crop Response based fertilizer prescription equations for desired seed yield target of glory lily were developed under Integrated Plant Nutrition System (STCR-IPNS) on Typic Rhodustalf (Palaviduthi soil series) of Tamil Nadu. On farm testing of STCR IPNS equations are essential to demonstrate the effectiveness of technology to the clients...