Stress manifestations in a degraded soil environment

Abstract

An attempt was made to identify the exact influences of the unfavorable characteristics of laterite soil on the productivity process using a medicinal rice type, Njavara. Three distinct phases could be identified in the nutrient uptake pattern, corresponding to the development of the plant: an accumulation phase, a dilution phase and finally, a diversion phase. The diversion phase is characterized by a decrease in dry matter accumulation due Tiller decline, which can be related to stress in the plant. Very high content of micronutrients especially of iron and manganese, in the plant could lead to inhibited metabolism and was probably the reason for low realized yields. Death of late formed tillers could thus be a protective mechanism of the plant to shed the unfavourably high levels of iron and manganese which limit growth and yield. Increased nitrogen application failing to increase yield is an indication of degraded soils, where absorption of nutrients takes place, but their transformation into yield is inhibited. Amelioration of these harmful effects is the sole way of increasing productivity

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.100628

Pages

32 - 36

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords