Dinitrogen (N2) fixation is widely recognized as an important

The age-old practice of turning the soil before planting a new crop is a leading cause of farmland degradation. Many farmers are thus looking to make plowing a thing of the past.

In order to address some issues faced by small farm holders, Agrarian Development Institute for Sustenance and Improved Livelihood (ADISIL), a Madurai based NGO, with the support of Svaraj, has revived an innovative, traditional technology, i.e. raised bed farming. Raised bed farming is the practice of using complex terraces of elevated earth to grow vegetables, it is done simply by forming a bed of topsoil that lies about 6 inches to 10 inches above the rest of the ground. Generally this bed is 3 feet wide and 8 feet to 10 feet in length.

Anthropogenic activities are responsible for the enhanced emission of reactive nitrogenous species like nitrous oxide (N2O), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and ammonia (NH3) into the atmosphere from the biosphere. This article reviews the available estimates of emissions of these reactive nitrogenous species for India.

In semi arid areas such as the Sahelian zone of Africa, many oils have become severely degraded. One extreme form is the bare and crusted soil, which is virtually productively "dead". In Burkina Faso, farmers have responded by applying mulch to attract termites that then help to rehabilitate the soil. A research project shows the importance of termites in breaking up hardened soil and increasing water infiltration. The land became productive enough to farm within months.

A pot experiment was conducted to study the toxic effect of nematicides: carbofuran, carbosulfan alone and their combination on soil microbial population and soil respiration with cotton as a test crop. The total bacterial population and free living diazotrophs population was reduced initially by nematicides application.

Many rural people in Tajikistan cannot afford to regularly buy products like fuel and agrochemical inputs. Instead, they rely on locally available yet increasingly scarce natural resources. One result is that large amounts of animal dung are used as fuel for cooking and heating. Simple modifications of local cookstoves are supporting rural communities to use local resources more efficiently, in the process improving soil rehabilitation.