Basically the soil texture, soil organic matter and the occurrence of natural lime in the soil (acid soils and alkaline soils).

Hi Kumari,

Interesting question, especially in the present context where we need to find ‘best soil management practices’ to sustain ‘soil quality’ and ‘productivity’ while at the same time increasing the food production from intensive land use.

I can explain one example for a unique soil management strategy now being recommended to achieve this goal in our region (Ontario, Canada). It is not a traditional soil management practice… rather; it could be called ‘an innovative soil management practice’.

In this region, we experience winter temperatures reaching around -20 C.  The agricultural landscape can be covered with 20-50 cm of snow in the winter.  Maize (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max) are the two main field crops. After such a winter, spring soil conditions are cold and saturated from snow melt. Therefore, quick dry-down in the spring is very important for timely planting of both maize and soybean. Conservation tillage practices (especially No-tillage) can slow down the drying process in the spring. Therefore our farmers prefer conventional tillage by mouldboard ploughing in the autumn, so soils can drain and dry-down faster in the spring. However, we know that conventional tillage can accelerate organic matter decomposition and in some situations can promote soil erosion.  Therefore, to capture the benefits of both conservation tillage and conventional tillage in one soil management system, soil scientist and agronomists in our region promote ‘Zone tillage’ or ‘Strip Tillage’ where only the seeding zone is tilled leaving a strip of no-till land with crop residues intact on the surface. This is practised in the autumn, soon after crop harvest, before soil conditions become too wet.  Following reference explains this system and its potential advantage very well: 

Soil Functional Zone Management: A Vehicle for Enhancing Production and Soil Ecosystem Services in Row-Crop Agroecosystems.  By Williams et al. (2016)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292992222_Soil_Functional_Zone_Management_A_Vehicle_for_Enhancing_Production_and_Soil_Ecosystem_Services_in_Row-Crop_Agroecosystems

Article Soil Functional Zone Management: A Vehicle for Enhancing Pro...

Hi Priyanka,

Here are some useful links and pdf attachments for your persual.

http://www.vellag.com/articles/methods-of-maintaining-soil-fertility/

https://www.academia.edu/5637716/TRADITIONAL_KNOWLEDGE_FOR_SOIL_MANAGEMENT_INDIA

http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/recreating-living-soil/sustaining-soil-fertility-useful-practices-and

http://www.growingforthefuture.com/unileverimpguid/content/3-3-3

https://www.academia.edu/601356/ASSESSMENT_OF_SOIL_FERTILITY_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_THEIR_CONSTRAINTS_IN_DIFFERENT_GEOGRAPHIC_LOCATIONS_OF_NEPAL

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aess/2012/616383/

Best of Luck