Dust storms are common in north India. The northwest India experiences a minimum of 5-6 dust storms during the summer season.
Very good question Dr Blaise. Occurrence of dust storms is a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid regions representing northwest India. Countries like Iran , Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria,Jordan, Turkey, are worst affected countries from dust storms , affecting not only the agricultural fields , the water bodies, siltation of canals, roads , transport etc , all get severely affected. Huge loss of top fertile soils carrying P and K is infact direct loss of soil fertility . Use of vegetative barriers called wind breaks, deep rooted crops , green manure crops holding soil particles together, etc have proven very handy . Under such conditions , plant looses their photochemical ability affecting its productivity to great an extent. I am enclosing some PDFs for further reading please on this very important issue. .
Also, micro-organisms (viruses,bacteria and fungi) specially the fungi associated to dust cause damages to crops.
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