REGISTRATION FORM- A

District: BARGARH State: ODISHA

PARTICULARS OF TEAM LEADER:
1. Name : Sonal Padhi
2. Date of Birth : 01/06/1996
3. Std/Class : IX (9th )
4. Sex : Male
5. Rural/Urban : Urban
6. Residential Address : S/O. Jatindra Prasad Padhi, AT/PO. Junagarh,
Dist: Kalahandi
Phone No. +919438035176
7. Name and Address of School/Institution : Vikash Residential School, Vikash
Enclave,
Barahaguda Canal Chowk,
Dist. Bargarh,
ODISHA, PIN- 768028
8. Title of the Project : “Unbalanced Use of Nutrients & Water
in the Paddy Field:
Its Impact on Soil Health &
Productivity”.
9. Under the Sub Theme : IV : Anthropogenic Activity on Land.
10. Language Used : English
11. Name and address of the Project Guide(s) :1.Murari Prasad Sahu,
(PGT,Biology),+919438771222
2. Pradip Kumar Sahu, (TGT, Maths.),
+919861679060
12.Particulars of the Team Members :
Sl. NAME ADDRESS SEX STD/CLA DATE OF
WITH SS BIRTH

PIN CODE
1 SONAL PADHI (GL) Vikash Res. M IX 01/06/199
School, 6

Bargarh-
768028
2 PRACHI JOSHI Vikash Res. F IX 05/05/199
School, 6

Bargarh-
768028
3 SAGAR RANJAN Vikash Res. M IX 10/09/199
PARIDA School, 6

Bargarh-
768028
 4 KIRAN MEHER Vikash Res. F IX 25/04/199
School, 7

Bargarh-
768028
5 SOMYASHREE SAMAL Vikash Res. F IX 23/11/199
School, 6

Bargarh-
768028

Principal
(SISIR PRASAD
RAULO)
Name & Signature of the Head
of the
Institution/District
Coordinator

Title of the Project:

“Unbalanced Use of Nutrients & Water in the Paddy Field:Its Impact on Soil Health and
Productivity”

ABSTRACT
Soils are open, dynamic, and natural bodies in the land scope. Soil may be defined
as the layer of the
earth crust which serves as a natural medium for plant growth.

INTRODUCTION:
Soil is a renewable natural source yet it can become finite, with passage of time
through its degradation. Soil degradation is a major problem and there are several
causes for this. Apart from all the factors the most vital factor for which land
degradation takes place is the anthropogenic activities carried on the land. As the
farming practices play critical role in maintaining the soil health, unplanned
agriculture such as indiscriminate use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, unplanned
irrigation and almost no use of organic fertilizers and manure make the soil of our
project area unhealthy. It is now the high time to think about the land resources
and the health as the continuation of the same practice by the farmers may
reduce the fertility forever & the land will be changed to barren land.

OBJECTIVES:
1. To understand the importance of soil health and quality.
2. To survey the various land areas and farming practices followed by the
farmers.
3. To find out the relationship between the soil and water in the project area.
 4. To find out the condition of soil health and the alteration caused due to
unplanned irrigation and unbalanced use of chemical fertilizers.
5. To find out the kinds of toxicity found in the soil of the project area if any.
6. To find out some remedial measures for the problems found.

PROJECT AREA:
Different areas have been selected within 15 to 20 form our school area to
make the survey and research work easier which were done from time to time for
three months long. Places where repeated rice cultivation is done for more than
two decades were visited and chosen for the experimentation. The project areas :
command area and rain fed area.
Villages like: Barahaguda, Parrapat, Ramkrishna Nagar, Nagenpali, Jamurda,
Tilapali, Sarla, Jampali, Kamgaon, Katapali, Bonda, Kalapani, Rengalicamp were
visited.

METHODOLOGY:
 Soil and Water sample collection, observation of the soil condition to know
the soil health quality.
 Observation of the damaged crop.
 Visited the soil conservation office and district agriculture office to meet the
officers to collect various data and that was correlated with the farmers
view.
 Discussion with the farmers and local people.
 Soil and water pH testing.

FINDINGS:
From our field study we observed various important facts and reality about the
paddy plant and the type of soil in which it is grown. The things that were clearly
observed from the study are indiscriminate use of H2O, fertilizer and pesticide
over the years had lead to soil and environmental degradation and affects the
crop field sustainability. We have found the imbalanced use of nutrients as 6:2.4:1
as against the ratio of 4:2:1 in the case of NPK fertilizer. The soil conservation
officer also informed that the farmers are concerned but they are damaging one
important part of the environment which is causing maximum harm to them first.
Another thing observed was from toxicity of iron which limits the production of
wet land rice on acid soil. The toxicity was most likely to occur in acid water
logged soil. The leaf symptoms are tiny brown spots which develop into a brown
colour bronzing.

DATA ANALYSIS:
Different data were taken regarding the pH of the soil, root penetration and
presence of organic matter. These were surveyed mainly in two areas: Command
and Rain-fed areas. The pH of the soil was found more acidic in the command
areas and also the root penetration. The organic matter was found in more
quantity in Rain-fed than the Command area. Simultaneously observation was
done at kinds of land forms chosen to know about the average amount of FYM and
fertilizers supply. Farmyard manure supplied [FYM] was almost negligible in the
canal irrigated crop lands and farmers are not taking interest in it. On the other
hand in the Rain-fed crop lands FYM supplied was found to be 1500kg/ha. Average
root penetration was found to be 7.64[in command area] which was less in rain
fed areas where root penetration was 10.2 . Due to the application of K in higher
doses root oxidizing power of rice increased. Iron content was not satisfactory and
its toxicity has put a greater stress on the roots of the paddy plants. It was
collected from the soil office that laterite soils which constitute 70% of soils of
Orissa contain 17.8- 356ppm of DTPA- Fe. Iron toxic soil, which show visual
symptoms of toxicity contain 105.1- 569.5ppm DTPA-Fe.

CONCLUSION:
The resources and the environment are getting depleted and degraded mainly
due to the ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES under the name of development and
production. In the project area the rice-rice cropping system has resulted in the
over exploitation of the natural land resource base, which has been further
enhanced by imbalance use of inputs such as chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides.
Inappropriate management practices from shrinking land resource base results in
further depletion of macro and micronutrients reserves. There it was found the
iron toxicity in the paddy crop which was not observed by the farmers as they just
want to increase the yield only. There are many ways to alleviate land
degradation, hence, to combat land degradation and to attain sustainable land
management the farmers’ theme should be “FEED THE SOIL, NOT THE CROP.”

FOLLOW UP ACTION:
1. Traditional test management knowledge should be shared among the
farmers.
2. The variety of rice tolerant to high concentration of Iron should be
cultivated.
3. Farmers should be given knowledge about the balanced use of fertilizers and
pesticides.
4. Improved water control in the field would enable better drainage , taking
some of the ferrous iron out of the rice root zone. So this should be practiced
by the farmers as far as possible.
5. Deep rooted plants should be used as intercrops in uplands to avoid iron
toxicity in lowlands.
6. Mostly farmers should be made aware of the use of nutrients at the right
amount in right proportion at the right time.