Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

SUSTAINABLE NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT UNDER MARGINAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS FOR BIOMASS PRODUCTION

Khalil Ur Rahman, Shoaib Ismail and Ramachandran Subramanian

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture production system plays a vital role in creating options that enable sustainability by developing systems that are environmentally preferable, resource-efficient and often more cost-effective. The present study was based on the interaction between trees and grasses and evaluation of local genotypes of forage species under field conditions. Results from the field have demonstrated the compatibility between trees and salt-tolerant grasses in response to different salinity treatments and fertilizers applications. Studies showed that trees could fix atmospheric nitrogen under different salinity levels, thus supporting the nutrient requirements for the grasses studied and hence increased the biomass yield. The trial was undertaken to evaluate the production of grasses both under fertilized and non-fertilized conditions. In this study, an enhanced nutrient use efficiency was reported under the non-fertilized tree-grass association. The results have shown that integration of trees with grasses have improved nutrient use efficiency and saved fertilizer application. Such a combination have a significant impact on agricultural adaptation in salt-affected lands for agricultural production.