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Sulphur status of Maharashtra soils and crop responses to sulphur application By A K Raina Sulphur recognized as fourth important element in crop nutrition, has been getting much attention of late with regard to evaluating fertility and productivity of soil. With the increase in cultivation of high yielding crop varieties, more usage of S- free fertilizers, the deficiency of Sulphur is becoming more wide spread and is bound to increase many fold, unless some corrective measures are taken, such as inclusion of Sulphur in crop fertilisation programme, inclusion of Sulphur estimation in soil testing programs on routine basis etc. Extensive surveys have been done in order to delineate S deficient areas in the country, but there is little awareness among the farmers about the ill effects of Sulphur deficiency on crop quality. Sulphur needs by the crops have to be estimated on soil test crop response studies, in order to arrive at correct dosages of Sulphur for a particular crop. In order to promote usage of Sulphur by the farmers, Deepak Fertilisers included estimation of Sulphur in its routine soil testing services for the benefit of the farmers and to advise them of correct dosages of Sulphur as per the crop requirement. Over a period of more than three years a total of 8550 soil samples collected from farmers fields have been tested and reported for available Sulphur status of their soils and advised accordingly on crop wise S recommendations. A consolidated report on the Sulfur status of soils of Maharashtra is being presented here. Material and Methods: A) Soil Analysis: Soil samples were collected from the farmers' fields as a part of market development activity. The activity is carried out by way of conducting two days soil testing camps. The camps are being organised every season by the marketing personnel in their area of operation. Soil testing camp is taken in a selected village, wherein proper method of collection of soil sample is demonstrated to the farmers, and at the end of two days the samples are collected and sent for analysis to the central laboratory at Pune. Apart from regular soil analysis ,estimation of available sulphur in well processed surface soil samples (0-15 cm depth) was carried out by extracting with 0.15% CaCl2 (Williams and Steinberg 1959) and amount of S determined colouimetrically by turbidimetric method using Barium chloride (Chesnin and Yien 1951). B) Sulphur trials on farmer's fields: During the period from 1997-2001, 169 multi location, multi crop two plot trials on elemental sulphur in pastille form (Bensulf -A form of elemental sulphur coated with a swelling agent marketed by Deepak fertilisers) were also conducted on the farmers' fields. (Table -4). These trials were carried out on two-plot design of 1/2 acre each keeping one as control (Only NPK) and other as treated (NPK+S). Doses of Sulphur were applied as per the available crop recommendations given by The Sulphur Institute (Washington D.C). These demonstrations were monitored from time to time and yield data were collected at the end of the season. Results and Discussion: A) Sulphur availability indices: District wise available sulphur status of the soils of Maharashtra is presented Table -1. A Perusal of the data shows the available Sulphur content in these soils varied from 1.25 mg kg-1 to 316.5 mg kg-1 with an average value of 29.05 mg kg-1. The highest 60.7 percent samples were found to be deficient in Raigad district, followed by Aurangabad (27.7percent), Pune (26.4 percent) Nanded (25.7 percent) Yavatmal (25 percent) Jalna (24.7 percent), Parbhani (22.4 percent) while remaining 13 districts viz. Amravati, Solapur, Akola, Osmanabad, Nasik, Sangli, Ahmadnagar, Satara, Buldhana, Beed, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, indicated the sulphur deficiency below 21 percent. Category wise classification of the available sulphur status showed that, overall 17 percent of the soil samples were found to inclined towards deficiency of sulphur (below 10 mg kg-1), where as 27 percent ranged in between 10-20 mg kg-1 while 56% were above 20 mg kg-1 available sulphur (Table -2). District wise mapping of Sulfur deficient areas is presented in Fig-1, and described in Table -3. It can be seen that Pune district had eight talukas falling under sulphur deficiency with high severity in Baramati taluka. Though Aurangabad district shows 27.7 percent soil samples deficient in Sulphur, but the severity of deficiency was confined to three talukas of Gangapur, Aurangabad and Paithan. In Jalna the extent of sulphur deficiency was confined to Dhansavangi, Ambad and Jalna talukas only. In Satara district Sulphur deficiency was more pronounced in Karad, Way, and Chatty talkies. Karjat taluka in Raigad district can be seen as sulphur deficient, which has 60.7 percent soil containing below 10 mg kg-1 available sulphur. It can be observed from the above data that the distribution of Sulphur deficiency though may not represent the whole district but reveals the severity of S deficient talukas wherefrom the samples were analysed. In Maharashtra sulphur deficiency has been reported to the extent of 54 percent as reported by Malewar and Syed Ismail (1997). On regional basis extent of Sulphur deficiency showed to the tune of 20 percent in Marathwada and western Maharashtra region followed by 17 percent in Vidarbha and 12 percent in Northen region comprising of Jalgaon, Nasik and Ahmadnagar. B) Crop responses to Sulphur application: Beneficial effects of Sulphur application were observed in many crops on the farmers' fields .The results of these demonstrations are presented in Table- 4. It can be observed from the data, that among cereals Paddy by and large showed significantly high cost benefit ratio of Rs5.31 /Re with an average increase in yield of 9.33 percent over NPK treatment. Cost benefit ratio was significantly higher (Rs 4.11/Re) in Groundnut crop among oil seed crops with highest yield increase of 22 percent, Castor and Sunflower also showed better cost value ratio of 4.97:1 and 2.89:1 respectively. Among the vegetable group Onion with maximum number of demonstrations showed significant yield increase of 8.71 percent with an average cost benefit ratio of Rs 3.99/Re followed by cauliflower Rs 3.66/Re. In Cabbage average yield increase of 31.19 percent with a value to cost ratio of Rs 21.71/Re was seen. Among the cash crops Sugarcane, which is the most important crop of the region showed 12.49 percent yield increase with a handsome cost benefit ratio of Rupees 4.51 per one rupee invested on Sulphur application. Likewise cotton and Tobacco showed a yield increase of 14.89 percent 10 percent with an average cost benefit ratio of Rs 3.05 and Rs10.10 per Rupee spent on sulphur application respectively. The above results corroborate the findings of various workers on different crops. Sahu and Nayak (1999) reported an increase in yield to the tune of 25.32 and 31.6 percent in Paddy and Groundnut respectively with application of elemental sulphur in comparison to various S sources. Maize also showed an increase in grain yield with S application by 14-17.8 percent as reported by Malewar et.al (2000). Similar type of yield responses with application of Sulphur on Soybean, Sunflower, Maize and wheat were also reported by Singh (2000) Phonde (1999) reported increase in cane yield of Sugarcane by 18.0 percent due to S application @ 60Kg/ha in alkaline calcareous soils of western Maharashtra. He also reported that elemental S application proved to be better source of Sulphur particularly on such soils.
Conclusion: Sulphur deficiency is becoming wide spread in alkaline calcareous soils of Maharashtra, as is being confirmed by many workers. Application of Sulphur as an essential nutrient source along with N P and K has become imperative, owing to more use of S free fertilisers. Estimation of S in soils and plants needs to be included in regular soil testing programs by various government and non-government agencies on priority. Application of elemental Sulphur has proved to be more effective on alkaline, calcareous soils as compared to other sources like gypsum, SSP etc, which tend to add more calcium to such soils, Use of elemental sulphur on well drained saline soils also needs to be studied in reclamation of such soils. Table - 1 Extent of Sulphur deficiency in the soils of Maharshtra in relation to other soil properties
Table - 2 Category wise Available S levels (mg kg -1)
Table-3 Talukawise Distribution of S deficient areas in Maharashtra
Table - 4 RESPONSE OF ELEMENTAL SULPHUR (BENSULF) ON VARIOUS CROPS ON FARMERS FIELDS (Mean of Different demonstrations)
SUGGESTED READINGS 1. Chesnin, L and Yen C H : Soil SCI. Soc. Mer Proc.,15:149-151, 1951 2. Malawi G U., Patella V D and Mali C.V: Porch. TSI/FAI/IFA Workshop on sulfur in balanced fertilization (Ed Sarkar, M.C. Biswas B.C., and Soumitra Das), FAI New Delhi, pp87-94 (2000). 3. Malewar G.U and Syed Ismail: Sulphur in Balanced fertilisation in western India. Proceedings of symposium on sulphur in balanced fertilisation, New Delhi, 1997 4. Phonde D B : Sulphur nutrient management in sugarcane ,15th cane development workshop on soil fertility management pp11-23,1999 5. Sahu S,K and Nayak S.C : Annual progress report AICRP micro and secondary nutrients & pollutant elements in soils and plants, OUAT Bubaneshwar, (1999-2000) 6. Singh M V: Micro and secondary-nutrients and pollutant research in India IISS Bhopal, 1-146(2000) 7. Williams C H ,Steinbergs A,1959 : Soil sulphur fractions as chemical indices of available sulphur in some Australian soils Aust J Agric res.10, 340-352 About Author: A. K. Raina did his M.Sc(Agri) in Soil science and Water management from Himachal Pradesh. Agricultural University Palampur, H P in 1985. Completed (MMS) Masters in Marketing Management form Pune University in 1998. Working with Deepak Fertilisers since 1991. Looking after soil water and plant analysis Lab. The above article is an original work carried out by him during 1998-2000.
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