Soil quality and crop productivity under 34 years old long-term rainfed rice based cropping system in an Inceptisol of sub-tropical India

Introduction Soil quality deterioration with the introduction of modern agriculture is a major threat to agricultural sustainability and food security problem more aggravated specially under rainfed agriculture. Asessment soil tortuous task as it can not be measured directly. The objective present investigation was evaluate effect long-term fertilization manuring on identify most sensitive indicators assessing rice based system. Methods samples were collected from selected six treatments viz. control, 100%NPK, 50%NPK, 50%FYM, 100%FYM 50%NPK+FYM 34 years old fertilizer experiment rice-lentil cropping system situated at BHU Varanasi, India. Results discussion Result revealed that continuous organic manure application along inorganic increased carbon by 54.1% over control treatment.Principal component analysis (PCA) done screen out key mean weight diameter, available Fe, N, potentially mineralizable Zn, FDA hydrolase activity Clay quality. highest index (SQI) 0.95 found in 50% NPK+FYM treatment. Regression showed better agreement equivalent yield SQI (0.87). Therefore, balanced fertilizers important for this practice may recommended Indian Inceptisol.