Welcome to Official Portal of Agriculture Department, Sikkim!

  • Change Font Size:
  • -A
  • |
  • A
  • |
  • +A
  • ||
  • Change Theme:
 
logo user
emblem userSign In
Home About Us Contact Us

More Menu

Soil Acidity and Liming

Soil acidity and liming

Natural variation of climatic conditions and wide range of parent materials involved in the soil formation of Sikkim, have resulted acidic soils of diverse nature. Among the four districts of Sikkim, the frequency of soil samples having pH less than 5 are 50 per cent in North Sikkim and in other districts is below 12 per cent (Bhutia et al 1985). On such type of soils, the growth of plants is restricted and low yield of crops can be attributed to Al and Mn toxicities, and deficiencies or imbalance s among the nutrient base cations. Exchangeable Al occupies the considerable portion of the soil exchange complex, where pH drops below 5 and liming of such soils are needed to improve the productive of soils.

The liming of acid is important to provide acceptable plant-root environment on soils containing high levels of toxic aluminum. The field experiments conducted on acidic soils of Sikkim to maize, wheat and soybean, the highest yield were obtained when dolomite limestone rates were 1-2-5 equivalent of exchangeable Al an soil Ph was around 5.5 (patiram et al.1991). Therefore, a ready reckoner for quick appraisal of lime requirement for the acidic soils of Sikkim is suggested to raise the pH 5.5 (Patiram 1991). The rate of limestone added in the acid soil based on exchangeable Al to raise the pH 5.5 was sufficient for 2 years to wheat and maize crops in a sequence, thereafter half amount to limestone is necessary for sustained crop productivity (patiram et al. 1990). Further field trials indicate that furrow applications of small doses of limestone (250 kg/ha) every year to maize and soybean is economical than a relatively higher dose based on exchangeable Al. The poor and marginal farmers with resource constraints can invest on 250 kg limestone/ha in furrows every year to achieve the optimum crop productivity.