Silvopastoral system for resilience of key soil health indicators in semi-arid environment

Abstract

Poor land utilization is always a concern in semi-arid regions. This study was conducted to examine the effect of different silvopastoral systems on soil chemical, biological and biochemical properties after 9 years of establishment. All studied soil properties were influenced by different land use systems except soil pH. Guava + pasture system recorded higher organic carbon [OC ~12 Mg ha–1], N (~257 kg ha–1), fungi (~43 × 107 cfu g−1 soil), alkaline (35.83 µg p-nitrophenyl g–1 soil h–1), and acid phosphatase (32.84 µg p-nitrophenyl g–1 soil h–1) activities compared to other land use systems. Whereas, microbial biomass carbon [MBC, ~92 mg kg–1 soil] content and total bacteria (239 × 107 cfu g−1 soil) counts were higher under bael + pasture system. Increased soil pH (7.1 to 7.4) in the monoculture pasture system favored the P content (~35 kg ha–1) over other land use systems. All the soil properties were higher in 0–15 cm compared to 15–30 cm depth. Our results demonstrate that for the resilience of key soil health indicators, the long-term guava + pasture and bael + pasture systems can be a promising option for semi-arid environment.