Liming is one of the most important and feasible management practices used to ameliorate soil acidity. The amount of lime required to neutralize the soil acidity is called lime requirement. Generally lime requirement (LR) for acidic soils are determined by buffer pH method because of their ease of implementation, simplicity and rapidity (Wolf el al., 2008). The SMP buffer test is used to determine lime requirement for Assam soils. Though this method is proven to work for Assam soils, it uses p-nitrophenol, which is very hazardous substance. Now-a-days soil-testing laboratories are under increasing pressure to reduce hazardous waste. So goal of this study was to evaluate a buffer as alternatives to the SMP buffer in determining the LR for Jorhat soils. In this study three buffer methods were used, i.e., Shoemaker, McLean and Pratt buffer; Sikora-I buffer and Sikora-II buffer. Further, Sikora-II based on the analysed parameters may be considered as an alternative to present SMP buffer lime requirement method. These findings may overcome the use of hazardous chemicals used for recommending lime rate during Soil Health Card (SHC) preparation as mandated by Govt. of India.
Author(s) Details
Lekhika Borgohain
Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Danish Tamuly
Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Nilay Borah
Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Samiran Dutta
Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Ramani Kanta Thakuria
Department of Agronomy, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
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