Effect of sugarcane monocropping on soil physical and chemical properties in texturally varied soils

Monocropping of sugarcane is highly profitable to the farmers and sugar industry as it reduces the production cost by 30-40 %. But productivity of sugarcane under multiratooning is declined by 30-50 % every year due to alteration of soil physical properties and soil biology which leads to reduction in cane population per hectare. All such alterations correlate with drastic reduction in ratoon cane yield as compared to plant cane. Multiratooning of sugarcane cultivation can alter on soil health. Hence, the present study was formulated to study the effect of sugarcane monocropping on soil physical and chemical properties in different textural classess of popular sugarcane growing areas of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. Three major soil types (sandy loam, red loam and clay loam) from popular sugarcane growing areas of Visakhapatnam district were collected by using GPS and Most popularly grown sugarcane cultivar for monocropping i.e 87A298 was selected in all these three sites. Results revealed that the soil physical properties under monocropping were negatively influenced with increasing frequency of ratooning in all the textural classes. However more influence was observed under clay loam soils compared to sandy loams. The data on soil fertility status in different ratoons indicated that the available macro nutrient status and soil organic carbon content was more in all the surface soils compared to subsurface soils and it was highest in clay loam soils followed by red loam soils and sandy loams. Among different ratoons relatively highest nutrient status was recorded than succeeding ratoons. With in different textural classes clay loam soils exhibited highest micronutrient status followed by red loams and sandy loam soils. With in the different ratoons there was not much variation in available micro nutrient status. However all the surface soils exhibited higher status than corresponding subsurface soils. Irrespective of the ratooning micronutrient status was more in clay loam soils and low in sandy loam soils.