Green manures in agriculture: A review

Abstract

Restoration of soil fertility of arable land is a great challenge in the developing and populous countries like India. The country witnessed the benefits Green Revolution Technologies (GRTs) in boosting of grain yield and the after effect of GRTs during past few decades in terms of deterioration of soil fertility and land degradation, loss of soil flora and fauna, genetic erosion, ecological unbalance, yield plateauing and associated insecurity in livelihood of the farmers. Now maintenance of soil fertility and sustainability of agriculture production are of important concerns. Green manuring can play an important role in this regard as it showed versatile impacts like improvement of soil physico-chemical and biological properties and fertility, nutrient supply to succeeding crops, checking erosion and plant protection. The previous research activities on various aspects of green manures were reviewed here in favour of evergreen agriculture for the future.