Temperate fruit farming in fragile lands of the North‐Western Himalaya: Implications on subsoil nutrient availability, and nutrient stock and soil quality

In the past few years, soil fertility in the North-Western Himalayan (NWH) region has deteriorated partly due to accelerated soil erosion but mainly due to unscrupulous nutrient management in field crops. However, it is largely unknown whether the long-term temperate fruit farming has adverse effects on the soil fertility in NWH or not. Therefore, the study was conducted with the purpose to evaluate the impact of different land uses under the NWH ecosystem, namely: peach orchard (PO), apple orchard (AO), fertile-fallow land (FL), and barren land (BL) on soil physico-chemical characters, nutrient storage capacity, and soil quality index (SQI), along the soil-depth gradient. A total of 116 composite soil samples [4 treatments (i.e., land uses), 4- soil depths (0.0–0.2, 0.2–0.4, 0.4–0.6, and 0.6–0.8 m) and 5, 9, 9, and 6 replications for PO, AO, FL, and BL systems, respectively] were collected for laboratory analyses. Across depths, the soils under temperate fruit plantations had better soil physical conditions (i.e., lower bulk density and higher porosity) over FL and BL lands. Experimental soils can be categorized as slightly acidic to near neutral in soil reaction. Soils under temperate fruit plantations (PO and AO), averaged over depths, had significantly (P <0.05) lesser quantity of soil organic C (SOC), available nutrients (i.e., primary-, secondary- and micro-nutrients), nutrient storage capacity, and indices of soil quality, as compared to FL lands. These hostile effects augmented in sub-soils (0.2–0.8 m) than top-soils (0.0–0.2 m) and secondary-, micro-nutrients than primary-nutrients. Results further revealed that these lands encompass a less favourable (i.e., very high) C:N ratio that could more easily be degraded if brought under intensive farming. Restoration of depleted soil fertility in temperate fruit-tree-based ecosystems of NWH through incentive-based building-up of soil organic matter (SOM) and adoption of soil-test-based nutrient management regime may be warranted. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.