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Introduction Black soil in India is rich in metals such as Iron, Magnesium and Aluminum. However it is deficient in Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorous and Humus. Black soil is of red colour mainly due to its iron oxide content. This soil shares 15 % of all types of soil in India. These soils are made up of volcanic rocks and lava-flow. It is concentrated over Deccan Lava Tract which includes parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Typical characteristics of this black soil are swelling (during wet period) and shrinkage (dry period). While dry, it forms very deep cracks of more than 30-45 cm. In Kovilpatti (Tamil Nadu) areas the cracks may extend to 2 to 3 m with a width of 1 to 6 cm. Field preparations takes longer time compared to other soil. Only after secondary tillage, the soil is suited for crop production.
The soils are fine grained contain high proportion of Calcium and Magnesium carbonates. Black soil holds more moisture and available for a long time.In Tamil Nadu Black soils have high pH (8.5 to 9) and are rich in lime (5-7%), have low permeability. The soils are with more cation exchange capacity (40-60 m.e./100 g). Crops cultivated from this type of soil are Rice, Ragi, Sugarcane and Cashew nuts etc. This type of soil formed as a result of high leaching and found in the areas of high rainfall.
Classification of Black Soil or types of Black Soil Black soil is classified on the basis of the thickness of layers into three sub groups:
1. Shallow Black Soil: Shallow Black Soil this type of soil found with thickness less than 30 cm. It exists in Satpura hills (Madhya Pradesh), Bhandara, Nagpur and Satara (Maharashtra), Bijapur and Gulbarga districts (Karnataka ). This type of soil is suitable for the cultivation of jowar, rice, wheat, gram and cotton.
2. Medium Black Soil: soil thickness ranges between 30 cm and 100 cm. It covers a larger area in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
3. Deep Black Soil: Thickness is more than 1 meter. It covers large areas in lowland zones of the Peninsular India. The clay content ranges between 40 to 60 per cent. Its reaction is alkaline. The soil is fertile and suitable for crops of cotton, sugarcane, rice, citrus fruits, vegetables etc.
Black Soil Characteristics and Constraints The soils developed on schists and gneisses and are moderately shallow (50-75 cm) to moderately deep (75-100 cm) where as those developed on basalt are deep (100-150 cm) to very deep (>150 cm). These soils are highly argillaceous with clay content varying from 30-80%.
The clay of Black soil has high coefficient of expansion and contraction, it is dominantly smectitic in nature, which leads to the development of typical features such as gilgai micro-relief, deep and wide cracks and closely intersecting slicken sides.
The members developed on calcareous clay parent material have high CaCO3 content that increases irregularly with depth. Black soils have pH values ranging from 7.8 to 8.7, which may reach up to 9.4 in sodic soils.
Black soils have cation exchange capacity (35-55 c mol (p+) kg -1) and it is rich in base status. The black soils also have high moisture holding capacity (150-250 mm/m), yet water is not available to plants because the water is held tenaciously by the smectitic clay.
Black soils are extremely sticky when wet and extremely hard when dry. It have low permeability and the bulk density of these soils is generally high (1.5 to 1.8 Mg m -3) because of it is shrink when it dry.
Black soils suffer from moisture stress during drought. These soils are poor in organic carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Water holding capacity is a major problem in shallow soils. Whereas deep soils when irrigated are very much prone to salinity and sodicity particularly in the subsoil.
Problems of Black Soil
Besides advantages of black soil, there are some disadvantages or problems of black soil. Those are listed below.
• Cracking when dry and swelling when wet makes them difficult to manage, unless they are cultivated at appropriate soil moisture levels. This makes black soil difficult to manage.
• Optimum conditions for tillage occur immediately after harvesting when the surface soil is still moist.
• Kharif in dependable rainfall areas (750mm-1250mm/yr) means considerable loss of water through runoff, considerable loss of nutrients, considerable soil erosion and loss of one crop.
• Poor drainage and water logging during rainfall
• Black soil have low fertility and are poor in organic matter, nitrogen, available phosphorous and zinc. The use of fertilizers and manures results in increased crop yield.
How to Manage Black Soil Problems?
To overcome problems in black soil, agriculturist or researchers mentioned some tips and information related to black soil management which is given below.
1. Small watershed resource management to conserve moisture and reduce erosion.
2. Application of moderate amount of NP fertilizers followed by the dry sowing of two rows of sorghum or maize on the side of the bed and a central row of pigeonpea as an intercrop about a week before the expected date of onset of the monsoon. (Use disease resistant varieties)
3. Counter cultivation alone increased crop yields by about 34% in growing sorghum across seasons as it arrests runoff and erosion by offering more time for the rain water to penetrate through innumerable miniature barriers created in the form of contour furrows, when compared to up-and-down cultivation.
4. Vertical mulching: keeping sorghum stubbles as vertical mulch in trenches 40cm deep, 15cm wide and protruding 10cm above the ground level enhanced the available soil moisture by 4 to 5 cm and thereby improved grain yields by as much as 400 to 500% in drought years and 40 to 50 % in normal years over unmulched plots.
5. Research shows that advanced planting of rabi crops by 20-30 days results in increased yield due to higher moisture availability and better utilization of nutrients.
6. Studies showed Intercropping of pearl millet/pigeonpea (2:1) or sorghum/mung bean (1:1) or sorghum/pigeonpea (2:1) results in increased yield.
7. Crop sequences such as mung bean-safflower, sorghum-safflower, maize-safflower, sorghum-chickpea, maize-chickpea showed better yield in Bijapur, Akola and Indore region.
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