The semi-arid tropics (SAT) represent about of 48 countries in the developing world. The SAT regions are mostly found in most part of India, locations in south east Asia, some part of sub-Saharan Africa, much of southern and eastern Africa, and a few locations in Latin America. The climates of the semi-arid tropics (SAT) are characterized by high incidence of solar radiation, high temperatures and very high variable rainfall. Only about 4% of the arable land of the semi-arid tropics is irrigated. Erratic and inadequate rainfall pattern and frequent dry spells are the predominant features of these regions Beside severe moisture stress, the soils of the SAT regions are highly impoverished in soil fertility leading to nutrient deficiency in most of the crops. The SAT soils are more suitable for the crops like Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), castor (Ricinus Communis), pearl millet (Pennisetm typhoides) and other small millets, cow pea (Vigna unguiculata), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), groundnut (Arachis hypgaea) and horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum). Other crops liked black gram (Vigna mungo) and green gram (Vigna radiata) can also be grown in these soils. It has been understood that apart from biotic stresses caused by plant pathogens, there are numerous abiotic stresses such as extreme temperatures, drought (moisture stress), salinity, nutrient deficiency and radiation which all have deleterious effects on plant growth and ultimately on crop yield.

References

Citation

Citation: KL Sharma. “Integrated Nutrient Management System is Must for Improving Soil Health and Achieving Higher Productivity Goals in the Semi-arid Tropics (SAT)". Acta Scientific Agriculture 5.11 (2021): 12-14.

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Copyright: © 2021 KL Sharma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.