ABSTRACT
This chapter reports the results from a full decade of research conducted at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics at Patancheru near Hyderabad in Telangana, India, between 1999 and 2009 on a rainfed vertisol. Appropriate use of such biological approaches has been previously reported to enhance the populations of soil microorganisms and macrofauna, thereby enhancing microbial transformations of different nutrients from their bound forms to available forms. Larger farms, because of their size, use their resources more extensively than intensively, and their higher total returns from agriculture usually derive more from their size of operation than from greater factor productivity or efficiency. Earthworms are widely accepted as having a beneficial influence on soil structure and chemistry that promotes plant, especially root, growth. A number of leguminous species offer opportunities to enhance biomass availability as cover crops or green manures.
