Soil Fertility, Soil Chemistry and Nutrient Management (Paper Code: 17010208)
Theory

Soil fertility and productivity; essential and beneficial nutrient elements, criteria of essentiality, available forms, mechanism of nutrient transport to plants, functions and deficiency symptoms in plants, factors affecting nutrients availability,

Microbiological transformations of C, N and S in soils; problem soils: acid, salt affected and calcareous and their characteristics, nutrients availability and reclamation (mechanical, chemical and biological). Biological method of soil fertility evaluation.

Introduction to manures and fertilizers; soil test based fertilizer recommendations to crops; integrated nutrient management; factors influencing nutrient use efficiency in respect of N, P, K, S and Zn fertilizers; sources, Methods and scheduling of nutrients for different soils and crops grown under rain fed and irrigated conditions.

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10

 

 

 

15

 Must know
Remediation /amelioration of deficiencies and toxicities. Rapid tissue tests. Indicator plants. Plant analysis –DRIS methods, critical levels in plants.

l, use of     brackish water in agriculture; Methods, Soil testing –Chemical methods

 7  

Desirable to Know
    Nice to Know
Practical

Principles of spectrophotometer, flame photometer and atomic absorption spectrophotometer

Principles of extraction of available nutrients from soil and digestion of plant material for analysis; determination of pH, EC, CO3—

Estimation of N, P, K, Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn in plants; visit to soil testing lab.

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10

5

  

Must know
Determination Ca++ and Mg++ in irrigation water; lime and gypsum requirement of problem soils; estimation of available N, P, K, S in soils;  

4

 Desirable to Know
Determination of CaCO3  and HCO3–, 1 Nice to Know
Syllabus books

1.       Nyle.C. Brady 1995. The Nature and Properties of Soils. 10th Edn. Printice Hall India Pvt.. Ltd. New Delhi

2.       Raymond W Miller and Roy L. Donahue. 1992. Soils and Introduction to Soils and Plant Growth. 6th edn. Printice Hall India pvt. Ltd. New Delhi

3.       Fundamentals of Soil Science. Published by Indian Society of Soil Science, IARI New Delhi, 2002

4.       Mengel, K.J. and Kirkby, A. 1978. Principles of Plant Nutrition. International Potash Institute, Switzerland

5.       Donahu, L. R., Miller, W. R. and Shickuluna, 1977. Soils. Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi

6.       Burges, A, and Raw, F. 1967. Soil Biology. Acad. Press, New York