V. Kasthuri Thilagam

ICAR- Sugarcane Breeding Institute · Soil Science

Over-exploitation of natural resources for agriculture has reduced crop productivity, unsustainable growth, and severe land degradation. Land use has changed over a period mainly based on irrigation, which has enhanced agricultural productivity, whereas excessive irrigation degraded soil quality and the ecosystem.

Nursery production of sugarcane settling is gaining importance to replace large quantity of seed cane requirement and the associated cost in conventional method. Sett treatment with nutrients using vacuum-based sett treatment device is effective in delivering nutrients into the setts, and the methodology has already been standardized. However, effi...

In India, the per capita availability of water is projected to be 1465 m3 and 1235 m3 by the years 2025 and 2050, respectively, and hence, India would be a water-stressed country as per the United Nations’ standard of less than 1700 m3 per capita water availability. India is predominantly an agricultural-dominant country. Rainfed agriculture in the...

The vast agro-climatic variability of India favours the country to produce all kinds of crops. Although the country has attained self-sufficiency in agricultural production through green revolution efforts, it also created severe sustainability issues on crop, soil and water resources. Intensive cultivation has depleted the soil nutrients and led t...

The effects of comprehensive interventions in erosion control, increasing water accessibility, developing agroforestry, managing natural resources sustainably, increasing agricultural productivity, and addressing the socioeconomic needs of farmers were investigated. The impacts of major watershed development programmes have been outlined in terms o...

The effect of nutrient management practices and the land-use system on nutrient enrichment in water resources of a hilly watershed was assessed with an event-based agricultural non-point source (AGNPS) model. The model intended to assess the runoff, sediment and nutrient loads in a typical hilly agricultural watershed. The model was calibrated, eva...

Agriculture, the backbone of our Indian economy, is vulnerable to climate change effects. Ensuring higher food production with sustainability is a challenge during this climate change scenario. In recent times, carbon sequestration gained the great interest of the global scientific community in mitigating climate change effects. Soil and biomass ca...

Climate change affects forest cover through increased temperature, change in precipitation, frequent extreme events, and a shifting disturbance regime. In view of understanding the existing studies carried out on climate change impact on forest cover, we reviewed the findings of several researchers to assess the impact of changing climatic paramete...

Forms and Purpose of the garden It is true that the gardens are created to satisfy different needs and the purpose varies with gardens, locations and customers (Table 1). For instance, The Botanical Garden of Ooty was started by the British people with the purpose of introducing plants. They succeeded in introducing tea, coffee, potato, wheat, euca...

The principles behind composting are specific enzyme production systems of microbes, which can degrade the complex organic debris into simpler substances that crops can utilize as nutrient sources. Coffee pulp is the major residue during the recovery of parchment coffee beans which is left unutilized. This can be converted into utilizable organic m...

Indian River basins are a source of water for 1.3 billion populations to fulfil the needs of all sectors. In recent years, there has been growing concern that the water resources of these river systems might impact global climate change, which might have severe consequences for the region's human population. A larger number of studies have been rep...

The agriculture sector faces numerous challenges like increasing population, decreasing per capita land, fragmented land holdings, land degradation and climate change in 21st Century. The downtrend of per capita land availability poses a severe threat to the sustainability and profitability of agriculture. This issue is severe for small and margina...

Aims: Recent climate change impacts rainfall patterns, increasing wildlife and livestock populations in higher densities, which are likely to aggravate water scarcity in forest areas. A sustainable water management strategy and action plan based on scientific inputs are crucial and need of the hour to resolve the water scarcity problem. Hence, the...

Indian farmers have innate knowledge and proficiency in organic farming as it istheir traditional way of agriculture. During the 1960s the demand for food production has increased and created much pressure on land and water resources. Out of a total reported geographical area of 329 Mha of India, about 146.8 Mha are degraded by various factors amon...

Millions of families in India depend on coconut cultivation for their livelihood. India ranks third in the area and production of coconut in the world. The red gravelly soils are sandy to clay in texture and well drained. This soil has good aeration, drainage, and root penetration, favouring the excellent fruiting and development of coconut.

Lantana is an exotic ornamental plant with pretty colourful flowers accidentally spread to the entire ecosystem and threatening the floral and faunal biodiversity. Invasion of the plant has put the native forest species in endangerment all over the world. This biodiversity loss is affecting the food web of the forest dwelling wild animals as well....

The Nilgiris district has surfaced and unsufaced roads that are repeatedly affected by erosion or landslip during the rainy season. The eroded soils accumulated in drainage channels causes frequent flood and water stagnation, and the accumulation of silts reduce the designed capacity of the dams and reservoirs. Drainage lines in the districts are b...

Watershed development projects are generally evaluated to assess their social, economic and ecological benefits. The evaluation of 17 sub-watersheds implemented under River Valley Project in lower Bhavani catchments during 1996-2000 on hydrology, bio-physical and socioeconomic aspects has been carried out. Participatory evaluation, random sampling...

A study was conducted to compare jute geo−textiles' performance with synthetic geo− textiles on runoff, soil losses, nutrient losses, soil moisture retention, and grass growth parameters. The study was conducted in two slope groups, namely 60% and 90% and three types of geo−textiles viz., 500 GSM synthetic geo−textile, 500 GSM non−woven JGT 500 GSM...

Popular article

The impact of comprehensive interventions in checking soil erosion, improving water availability, development of agro-forestry, sustainable management of natural resources, enhancement of agricultural productivity and socio-economic aspects of the farmers of watershed interventions implemented under River Valley Project (RVP) in 149 micro watershed...

Aims: The impact of comprehensive interventions in erosion control, improving water availability, development of agro-forestry, sustainable management of natural resources, enhancement of agricultural productivity and socioeconomic aspects of the farmers was studied. Assessment of effectiveness of watershed development programme, identification of...

There are 17 nutrients established as essential for plant growth and higher yield, among those 6 nutrients viz., zinc, boron, iron, manganese, molybdenum and copper are required in small quantities and therefore called micronutrients. Though the requirement of micronutrient is less, their role in plants for the sustainable yield is very important....

Lead paper on Landslide Causes, Impacts and Policy Issues for Mitigation

The Nilgiris district is located in one of the eight biodiversity hottest hotspots of the world. They have wonderful landscape with ecologically unique high elevation grass lands interspersed with lush green bushes and trees called Sholas. Geographically, it covers an area of 2545 Km2 with altitude range of 800 to 2595 meters above the sea level ac...

Landslides are one of the common natural as well as manmade hazards in mountainous terrains. It involves movement of a mass of rock, debris or earth down a slope, under the influence of gravity. Landslides can be triggered by a variety of natural phenomena such as rainfall, earthquakes, rapid snow melting, storm waves and volcanic eruption that cau...

Water pollution is now becoming one of the most challenging environmental threats in the world. Nutrient enrichment in water bodies due to natural and anthropogenic practices are the major causeof water pollution. This process of nutrient accumulation or enrichment in water bodies is called Eutrophication.The word ‘eutrophic’ comes from the Greek w...

Keywords: JGT; Slopes; Land Slide Permanent structures are being used traditionally to stabilize the slopes in hill region which is tedious and costly process. As the slope failure is result of land slide, mining, flood, etc, slope stabilization using permanent structures cannot be adopted in larger scale.

Keywords: JGT; Slopes; Land Slide Permanent structures are being used traditionally to stabilize the slopes in hill region which is tedious and costly process. As the slope failure is result of land slide, mining, flood, etc, slope stabilization using permanent structures cannot be adopted in larger scale.

Study on Effect of Incorporation of Shredded Cotton Stalks by Cotton Stalk Shredder on Soil Properties.

PurposePotassium (K)-fractions, thresholds of K release and fixation, quantity-intensity (Q/I) parameters of K, K-release kinetics, and K-fixation capacity were compared for their effectiveness in differentiating the effect of various nutrient management practices on K supplying capacity of an Aeric Endoaquept soil after 45 years of puddled rice cu...

Slope stabilization is a tedious process since various human activities being carried out in various parts of the world have led to land use changes that has indirectly affected slope stability. Permanent structures are being used for slope stabilization which are costly and cannot be adopted in a large scale. Slope stabilization by establishing gr...

Soil degradation induced by erosion represents a major threat to food production and ecosystem service globally, and in India more than 80 Mha have been impacted. In the light of the serious threat, there is a pressing need for a systematic nationwide assessment of land degradation due to erosion. We discuss the potential for using caesium-137 and...

Soil and water are the most important natural resources that meet all human needs, and protect the environment and the civilization. Ever increasing demands for land and water resources due to burgeoning population cause the degradation of these two precious natural resources. Land degradation is a serious problem in India and out of 329 million he...

The effects of rice husk biochar (BC) and coal fly ash (FA) on growth and yield of rice and soil properties were investigated in a lowland rice soil. All growth parameters and yield were positively influenced by the integrated application of BC, FA and chemical fertilisers compared with sole application of chemical fertilisers. Yield increase was 1...

Incorporation of cotton stalks into the soil ensures rapid decomposition. The most rapid decomposition occurs when residue is placed 10 cm deep and shredding stalks as finely as possible. A tractor operated cotton stalk shredder was used for shredding cotton stalks in the field. The commercially available rotavator is used as insitu applicator for...

Agriculture is the backbone of our country and economy, which accounts for almost 30 per cent of GDP and employs 70 per cent of the population. Though this is a rosy picture of our agriculture, how long will it meet the growing demands of the ever-increasing population? This is a difficult question to be answered, if we depend only on traditional f...

Nitrogen is one of the important and limiting nutrients in low land rice production in India. However exogenous application of nitrogen fertilizers is highly expensive owing to increasing price of fossil fuel and abysmal low use efficiency of applied N, which hardly exceeds 30% in low land situations. Hence improvement of utilization efficiency of...