Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges & Opportunities
during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
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Biochar: An Effective Soil Amendment to Reduce Emissions and Increase
Crop Productivity
Nitin M. Kumbhar, Narendra M. Tiwatne and Madhav D. Gholkar*
* madhav.gholkar@wotr.org.in
Agricultural soils are mainly treated with chemical inputs to replenish the soil nutrients
consumed by the plants. However, the loss of soil organic carbon, one of the main constituents to
keep soils fertile and healthy, is never given much importance while managing agricultural soils.
On the other hand, most farmers burn their crop residues in fields that release greenhouse gases.
Burning cotton crop residues is a regular practice in Maharashtra's cotton-growing regions as it
cannot be used as fodder or decomposed into manure for soil incorporation. Converting the
cotton feedstock into biochar and using it for field application is an environmentally sustainable
and economically viable way to manage the crop residue. A field experiment was conducted to
see the effect of various combinations of biochar, chemical fertilizers, and city waste compost on
wheat soybean cropping system crop productivity. A randomized block design was used to see
the effects of biochar on crop productivity. Our study reveals that the application of 2.5 tones/ha
of biochar increases the crop productivity of Soybean by 10 to 20% andwheat by 38 to 55%
compared with conventional farmer practice without biochar application. This also helps in
reducing the GHG emission from crop residue burning. Village-level production and use of
biochar prepared from cotton feedstock have appeared as an effective technique to avoid the
emissions from agriculture and improve soil health by adding stable carbon in the form of
biochar.
Temporal Changes in Soil Properties under Intensive Cotton Growing
Vertisols
S. B. Girdekar 1* , P. Chandran 1 , D. Vasu 1 , M.V. Venugopalan 2 and P. Tiwari 1
1 ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur – 440033, India
2 ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur
* shubhamsoils1994@gmail.com
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The investigation was carried out to evaluate the temporal changes in soil properties under
intensive cotton growing Vertisols in the CICR research farm, Panjri village of Nagpur
554 | Page Sustainable soil management for resilient rainfed agro-ecosystem: conservation agriculture, organic farming, INM, soilmicroorganisms-plant
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