Vol. 10, Issue 4 (2021)

Author(s):
Basta Ram, Ajeet Pratap Singh, Veer Singh and Navneet Pareek

Abstract:
The present study was undertaken to assess the effect of different land uses on physical properties in a Mollisol. The study area was located at Norman E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, which lies at 29⁰ N latitude, 79⁰ 3^’ E longitude and 243.84 m above the mean sea level altitude. The land use systems selected for study were S₁ (rice – potato – okra), S₂ (rice – pea (vegetable) – maize), S₃ (sorghum multicut (fodder) – yellow sarson – black gram), S₄ (rice – wheat – green gram), S₅ (rice – berseem + oat + mustard (fodder) – maize + cowpea (fodder)), S₆ (guava + lemon), S₇ (poplar + turmeric), S₈ (eucalyptus + turmeric), S₉ (fallow (uncultivated land)). The soil sample collected from D₁ (0-15 cm depth), D₂ (15-30 cm depth), D₃ (30-45 cm depth) and D₄ (45-60 cm depth) for analysed soil physical properties (soil colour, soil texture, bulk density, particle density, porosity and water holding capacity). Among the different land use systems S₉ treatment obtained significantly high value. The highest value of pH, EC, bulk density and water holding capacity were reported with D₄ depth (7.59), with D₁ depth (0.289 dSm^-1), with D₄ depth (1.47 g cm^-3) and with D₁ depth (55.47%), respectively. While the lowest value was observed with D₁ depth (7.51), with D₄ depth (0.244 dSm^-1), with D₁ depth (1.38 g cm^-3) and with D₄ depth (50.15%), respectively. Results indicated that soil under agroforestry based systems was found superior with respect to soil physical environment followed by field crops, horticultural crops and the uncultivated land.