Browsing by Author "Sinha, Abhas Kumar"

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    Active and Passive Carbon Fractions in Contrasting Cropping Systems, Tillage Practices, and Soil Types
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2023) Rakesh, S.; Sinha, Abhas Kumar; Sarkar, Deepranjan; Roy, Dewali; Bodiga, Divya; Sahoo, Samaresh; Jha, Prakash Kumar; Dubey, Pradeep Kumar; Rakshit, Amitava
    The rate of change in the relative amount of active and passive carbon (AC and PC) due to the land management practices (cropping systems combined with tillage) may vary with soil types depending on their level of chemical and/or physical protection from the decomposition but has rarely been directly measured. We have quantified the C storage potentiality of different soil types, namely old alluvial Inceptisol of Malda and recent alluvial Entisol of Coochbehar in West Bengal (subtropical eastern India) under the influence of different cropping systems (rice-maize: RM and rice-wheat: RW) and tillage practices (zero-tillage: ZT and conventional tillage: CT). The key objective was to demonstrate the short-term impact of conservation agriculture (CA) on soil C dynamics over the conventional practice. Research revealed that after short-term CA, total organic carbon (TOC), AC, PC, and total nitrogen (TN) showed significant (p < 0.05) improvement under the RM cropping system over the RW. The highest TOC content under the RM cropping system was recorded in the sites of Malda over the Coochbehar sites. The ZT significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced the TOC in the upper layers (0�5 and 5�10 cm) and the CT showed improvements in the lower depths (10�20 cm). We observed some irregular variations in the interactions of the cropping system and tillage with respect to different sites. However, the ZT performed better in improving C fractions under RM and RW as compared to CT. The TOC and TN stocks were maximum in the lower depth which was evident in both soil types. The TOC linearly regressed on TN accounted for 94.2% variability (R2 = 0.942) of the C accumulation in soil and vice-versa. The PC was in a significant relationship with TN (R2 = 0.943), but AC was moderately regressed (R2 = 0.851). Lower stratification ratio values in Coochbehar soils (sandy loam in texture) indicated higher profile distribution of AC and PC in the soil profile; while in the Inceptisol, accumulation of the C fractions on the soil surface due to heavy texture resulted in the higher stratification values. The novelty of this study is that old alluvial Inceptisol showed a comparatively greater amount of AC and PC storage capability in comparison with the new alluvial Entisol. Conclusively, our study demonstrated that the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA practice/ZT) in cropping systems with higher C biomass input would significantly enhance the AC and PC fractions; however, the amount of storage is highly governed by the soil type and climatic factors. � 2023 by the authors.
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    Carbon mineralization rates and kinetics of surface-applied and incorporated rice and maize residues in entisol and inceptisol soil types
    (MDPI, 2021) Rakesh, S.; Sarkar, Deepranjan; Sinha, Abhas Kumar; Shikha; Mukhopadhyay, Prabir; Danish, Subhan; Fahad, Shah; Datta, Rahul
    Mineralization of carbon (C) is a burning issue that is regulated by soil attributes. It has direct impacts on crop productivity and quantification of organic residues addition in soil. For better understanding and achievement of potential tillage benefits, a comprehensive scientific understanding of C mineralization is very important. Therefore, a laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to investigate the C mineralization rates and kinetics of crop residues (rice and maize) when applied on the surface (as zero-tillage, ZT) and incorporation (as conventional tillage, CT) in four different soil types (S1 and S2 of Entisol; S3 and S4 of Inceptisols) of West Bengal state, India. Results showed that after 7 days of incubation, there was a rapid phase of decrease in CO2-C. It continued up to day 14 followed by a sluggish nature of CO2 emission up to day-42, and after that almost levelling off in all subsequent periods up to the end of 126 days of incubation. It was evident from the kinetic models that C mineralization from the residues followed the exponential model: C = C0 (1 ? e?kt ). Similar rate constant (k) values were recorded in both placement methods, but the rate of maximum potential mineralizable (C0k) residue C was higher under residue incorporation treatments for both rice and maize residue. However, the rice and maize residues showed almost similar amounts of C mineralized over time when applied on the surface. The future prediction analysis using the equation C = C0 X e?kt suggested that the residues incorporated into the soil release a maximum C irrespective of residue type. We conclude that the residues when incorporated into the soil significantly increase the C footprints through maximum C mineralization; leaving the crop residues on the soil surface reduces the C footprints which helps in achieving sustainability from an environmental perspective. � 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
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    Does the accretion of carbon fractions and their stratification vary widely with soil orders? A case-study of an Alfisol and an Entisol of sub-tropical eastern India
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2022) Rakesh, S.; Sinha, Abhas Kumar; Juttu, Ravinder; Sarkar, Deepranjan; Jogula, Kamalakar; Reddy, Sharan Bhoopal; Raju, Bairi; Danish, Subhan; Datta, Rahul
    Comparison of the carbon (C) stocks among different soil orders allows us to explore the role of various soil characteristics in long-term C storage and their vulnerabilities. This study quantified and compared the accumulation rates of soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions (in 0�60 cm soil profile) in an Alfisol of Malda (25�27?33.9?N, 88�19?10.2?E) and an Entisol of Cooch Behar (26�09?62.7?N, 89�53?51.7?E) districts of West Bengal, India. We noticed a greater level of SOC (0�60 cm depth) in the Alfisol than the Entisol as the former soils were clayey in nature (fine textured) which provided the maximum stabilization of SOC compared to the Entisol (sandy textured). However, the storage of C fractions showed some peculiar results. The concentration of mineral-associated carbon (Min-C) was more or less similar in both the soil orders, but its stock was maximum in the Alfisol. While in the Entisol, permanganate oxidizable carbon (POX-C) and particulate organic matter carbon (POM-C) stocks recorded maximum among all the studied depths. A positive relation of SOC fractions and stocks with clay (r2�= >0.500 in the Alfisol; r2�= >0.700 in the Entisol) indicated the importance of finer fractions in profile storage of C. Min-C contributed to SOC of about 75%�85% followed by POM-C (3.27%�17.87%) and POX-C (2.57%�4.22%). Higher stratification of SOC and POX-C and POM-C fractions was observed in Entisol; while in Alfisol, stratification of Min-C was greater. Overall, this research demonstrated that the Alfisol has a greater potential in stabilizing Min-C than the Entisol with POM-C and POX-C and the distribution of these fractions varied as per its stabilization. � 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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    Soil organic carbon and labile and recalcitrant carbon fractions attributed by contrasting tillage and cropping systems in old and recent alluvial soils of subtropical eastern India
    (Public Library of Science, 2021) Rakesh, S.; Sarkar, Deepranjan; Sinha, Abhas Kumar; Danish, Subhan; Bhattacharya, Prateek Madhab; Mukhopadhyay, Prabir; Salmen, Saleh H.; Ansari, Mohammad Javed; Datta, Rahul
    Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) technologies comprising zero-tillage with crop residue retention (>30%) on the soil surface, diversified cropping systems, and balanced nutrient management are recognized as operative and efficacious strategies to ensure food security in the parts of South Asia. The present investigation was a component of CASI technologies undertaken in the farmers� field of Malda (old alluvial Inceptisol) Coochbehar (recent alluvial Entisol) district, West Bengal (subtropical eastern India). This study was conducted to evaluate the short-term impact of contrasting tillage (zero and conventional) and cropping systems (rice�wheat and rice�maize) on total organic carbon (TOC) and its fractions, viz., labile pool-1 (LP1), labile pool-2 (LP2) and recalcitrant carbon (RC) fractions after 4-year trial of conservation agriculture (CA) in the old and recent alluvial soils. Soil samples were collected from three depths (0�5, 5�10, and 10�20 cm), and thus, our study was focused on two factors, viz., cropping system and tillage. Results pointed that TOC along with LP1, LP2, and RC fractions under rice�maize (RM) cropping system were significantly (p<0.05) greater (15�35%) over rice�wheat (RW) system as a result of higher residue biomass addition. Zero-tillage (ZT) improved the C fractions by 10�20% over conventional tillage (CT) in all aspects. TOC and its fractions were observed to be greater under the ZT system in the topmost soil depths (0�5 and 5�10 cm), but the same system failed to improve these at 10�20 cm. Interestingly, the CT increased all the fractions at 10�20 cm depth due to the incorporation of crop residues. The concentration of TOC along with its fractions decreased with increasing soil depth was evident. Comparatively, all the C fractions, including TOC were maximum in soils from Malda sites as compared to Coochbehar sites because of a higher amount of residue biomass application, higher clay content, and greater background content of C in these soils. All the studied C fractions showed a significant correlation (r = >0.635; p<0.01) with TOC among all the soil depths in both the districts but the relationship with soil texture showed some interesting results. TOC fractions were significantly correlated (p<0.01) with clay particles indicating that its higher stabilization with clay in old alluvial Inceptisol (Malda); while in recent alluvial Entisol (Coochbehar), sand particle showed its strong relation with TOC fractions. Higher stratification ratio (SR) in the ZT system suggested that the concentration of TOC and its fractions are confined to the upper soil layers whereas in the case of CT, by and large, the distribution of these was comparatively high in subsequent soil depths due to residue incorporation effect. The concentration of C fractions in soils followed the order: TOC > RC > LP2 > LP1. The present investigation concluded that ZT under the RM system increases the turnover rates of C in both soil types but the amount of clay influences the stabilization/storage of C. � 2021 Rakesh S. et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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    Use of Agrochemicals in Agriculture: Alarming Issues and Solutions
    (wiley, 2022) Mitra, Biplab; Chowdhury, Arnab Roy; Dey, Prithwiraj; Hazra, Kali Krishna; Sinha, Abhas Kumar; Hossain, Akbar; Meena, Ram Swaroop
    Agricultural growth affects the economic growth of a country through the supply of food and other raw materials to nonagricultural sectors, and it is quite obvious that agricultural productivity through judicious use of inputs could play a vital role in structural change in the economy. But the indiscriminate use, rather misuse of chemical inputs in agriculture, has led to many problems in our ecosystem. A rough estimate of pesticide usage among the different developing countries shows that East Asia (including China) and Latin America consume almost 70% of the total pesticide use with only 4% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the irrational use of agrochemicals, the degree of pollution in soil, air, water, and ecosystem as a whole is a big concern for us. A typical estimate of soil surface nitrogen balance for agricultural land in India reveals that inorganic fertilizer is the major contributor of nitrogen inputs in the ecosystem (10.8 Tg N) followed by manure (1.53 Tg) and a positive balance of 2.32-1.89 Tg N was found which is responsible for various environmental hazards. The judicious use of inputs matching with the requirement of the crops and their application below residue detection limits are the priority areas to protect our future generations from hazardous effects and to provide food to every mouth on the other hand. We have to assess the harmful effects of various chemical inputs used in agriculture continuously, and suitable strategies are to be developed orienting towards the rational use of inputs. The major impacts of chemicals and their contaminants are alterations in species diversity, degradation of physical-chemical-biological parameters of soil, water, and atmosphere, making them of inferior quality. This chapter describes the impact of alarming uses of chemicals on agricultural systems, water bodies as well as on the environment on one hand, and framing of suitable strategies targeting judicious use of inputs in agriculture on the other. Strategies include sustainable resource management through conservation agriculture practices, site-specific nutrient management, precision farming, integrated management of pests and diseases, agricultural waste management, and use of nano-molecules in addition to some biotechnological tools and policy interventions. � The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.