Handbook of Green Manuring

Contents: Particulars. Preface. About the book. About the authors. 1. Introduction. 2. Green manuring practices. 3. Soil properties. 4. Agrotechnology. 5. Biomass production and nutrient accumulation. 6. Decomposition of green manures. 7. Factors affecting decomposition of green matter. 8. Cropping systems and green manuring. 9. Crop response. 10. IPNM involving green manure. 11. Economics. 12. Constraints in widespread use of green manuring. 13. Summary and conclusions. Selected references. Subject index.

"Significant progress has been made in food production to feed the increasing population through the large scale adoption of high yielding crop varieties, intensive cropping and improved farming technology which is based on judicious and balanced use of chemical fertilizers and manures. This involves the supply of fertilizers in large quantities, especially in favorable areas to maintain high crop productivity. As a result, the organic manures like green manures, animal waste and compost, which have been traditionally used by the farmers, lost their importance.

Green manures, particularly the leguminous crops, are of great value for improving soil fertility. The beneficial effect of green manures includes the microbiological, chemical and physical properties of soil. Green manures are particularly recognized for their nitrogen supplying capacity. The global N flux from symbiotic fixation has been estimated to be about twice the input from chemical fertilizers. Similarly, the nitrogen fertilizer equivalence, a index used to compare the efficiency of green manure, has been focused to range from 40 to 200 kg/ha in different crops. Besides supplying nitrogen, green manures favorably influence the physical properties of the soil, increase water retention capacity, reduce the leaching loss of nutrients and improve the availability of other plant nutrients like phosphorus, sulphur and micro nutrients through their impact on chemical and biological properties of soils. The use of green-manure crops will aid in intensive production which cannot be sustained with cattle dung manure alone.

This book attempts to provide overall information on green manures, their significance as an important component of low input sustainable agriculture and the future strategies for popularizing this technology." (jacket)