Effect of Shifting Cultivation on Soil Quality Index and Nitrogen Mineralisation of Forest Ecosystem of Manipur, North East India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55863/ijees.2024.3164Keywords:
Slash and burn agriculture, Fallow land, Ammonification, Nitrification, Nitrogen mineralisationAbstract
Shifting cultivation, also referred to as slash and burnt agriculture, was a rather extensive farming system that incorporates both cropping and fallow periods in its land rotation. Changes in land use have a marked effect the soil fertility, soil nutrient dynamics and long term sustainability and for their influence in the atmospheric CO2 concentration and global warming. Physico-chemical characteristics of soil in slash and burnt site, fallow land and protected forest have been studied. Soil temperature was maximum in slash and burnt site 20.97⁰C followed by fallow lands 19.60⁰C and minimum in protected forest site 19.55⁰C. However, this trend was reversed for soil moisture which was minimum in slash and burnt site 17.46% followed by fallow land 18.57% and maximum in protected forest 19.26%. In the present study the nutrient status, i.e. soil organic C, nitrogen and total phosphorous, of soil in slash and burnt site was higher than other sites which may be attributed due to addition of ash and partly burnt material. The C/N ratio in slash and burnt site, fallow land and protected forest sites were 8.06, 4.89 and 5.22, respectively. The rate of ammonification, nitrification and N-mineralisation was maximum in rainy season in all the four study sites and minimum in winter season except in site I. There was significant correlation between the rates of ammonification, nitrification and N-mineralisation with soil parameters such as moisture, organic carbon, total nitrogen, temperature and pH. High amounts of nutrient in soil under shifting cultivation are lost through leaching, runoff and soil erosion if not uptaken by the crops. Thus, the stability of shifting cultivation system depends upon recovery and maintenance of soil fertility. If the nutrients lost or displaced during the cropping phase are restored during the fallow phase, the system could continue sustainably.
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