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innumerable number of soil organisms which are of cereal or oilseed insect pests or diseases are
essentially helpful to maintain soil health (Sinha not available (Kumar et al., 2014). Thus, pest
et al., 2009). Green manure addition in soil may incidence may be reduced by providing a break
increase phosphorus availability to succeeding from cereals with a green manure legume. The
crops by transforming unavailable P arising from weed population is also controlled as they inhibit
native and residual fertilizer P to available form; weed seed germination by their allelopathic effect
certain crops (alfalfa, red clover, sweet clover, on the succeeding crop.
etc.) show more ability to absorb available P from
soil as compared to other crops.
Prevention of nutrient loss and soil erosion
Large quantities of nitrates are lost from soil by
leaching and surface run-off as nitrates are not
strongly attracted by soil particles. This loss
is more pronounced during the fallow period
between two main crops. Green manure crops,
acting as cover crops, are raised between the
main crops to prevent soil erosion, restore
productivity of exhausted land, protect fallow
land from nitrate leaching. Green manuring has
been demonstrated to improve the soil cation
exchange capacity of soil, thus it protects cation
from leaching out of the plant root zone and
makes them available to plant roots.
Fig 2 : Benefits of practicing green manuring.
It also prevents water and wind erosion, due to
the root-soil binding effect and due to the crop REFERENCES
canopy, which lessens the beating effect of water Gill, K., Sandhu, S., Mor, M., Kalmodiya, T., Singh,
and wind on soil surface so that soil particles are M. 2020. Role of Green Manuring In Sustainable
not detached and transported quickly. Agriculture: A Review. European Journal of
Amelioration of problem soil Molecular & Clinical Medicine :7(7).
Problem soil includes salt affected soil and sodic Kumar, R., Mahajan, G., Srivastava, S., Sinha,
A. 2014. Green manuring: A boon for sustainable
soil. Nitrogen, organic C and total carbohydrate agriculture and pest management A Review.
levels in salt-affected soil are improved to a great Agricultural Reviews,
extent, when soils were amended with green
manures (Zubair et al. 2012). However, this 35:196-206.
essentially improved the impaired soil physical Kumar, S., Samiksha, Sukul, P. 2020. Green
conditions too. In sodic soil, green manuring is a Manuring and Its Role in Soil Health Management.
common practice to reclaim the soil as well as to Giri, B., Varma, A. (eds.), Soil Health, Soil Biology,
improve the soil fertility. It lowers down high pH 59: 219-241, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-
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replaces the exchangeable sodium ions by other
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2018. Green manures in agriculture: A review.
Efficient plant protection
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Green manuring controls insect-pests, weeds 7(5): 1319-1327.
and soil-borne diseases and disrupts the life Pandey, V.P. 2013. Green Manuring; Boon for
cycles of several crop pests by creating a gap in Rice farmers. Krishisewa.
the crop rotation sequence where alternate hosts