H. M. ABDUS SHAHID AND MRIDUL BURAGOHAIN
Abstract
The increasing land use intensity without adequate and balanced use of chemical fertilizers and with little or no use of organic manure have caused severe fertility deterioration of our soils resulting in stagnating or even declining of tea productivity in Assam. The need of the hour is to achieve substantially higher tea yield than the present yield levels from our limited land resources on a sustainable basis. A study was carried out in the tea garden belts namely, Cinnatolliah, Doolahat, Dejoo, Sirajuli and Ananda tea estates of Lakhimpur district of Assam to investigate the fertility status of soil during 2023â2024. Results of the present study showed that soil solutions were acidic in nature in both seasons (dry and wet). Medium-to-high, mediums OM, medium-tonight available nitrogen (N) and available phosphorous (P) and low availability of exchangeable potash (K) showed that soils were not sufficiently fertile for tea production in both seasons (dry and wet) and EC in wet seasons and bulk density in dry season only. A suitable socio-economic and policy environment to maintain and improve soil fertility is also lacking. There searchers feel that environmental aspects of soil quality of this area need serious attention in near future for better agricultural practices.