Evaluation of Buffer Lime Requirement Methods without Hazardous Chemicals for Acid Soils of Assam, India | Chapter 06 | Research and Development in Agricultural Sciences Vol. 1
Liming is one of the most important and feasible management practices used to ameliorate soil acidity. The amount of lime required to neutralize the soil acidity is called lime requirement. Generally lime requirement (LR) for acidic soils are determined by buffer pH method because of their ease of implementation, simplicity and rapidity (Wolf el al., 2008). The SMP buffer test is used to determine lime requirement for Assam soils. Though this method is proven to work for Assam soils, it uses p-nitrophenol, which is very hazardous substance. Now-a-days soil-testing laboratories are under increasing pressure to reduce hazardous waste. So goal of this study was to evaluate a buffer as alternatives to the SMP buffer in determining the LR for Jorhat soils. In this study three buffer methods were used, i.e., Shoemaker, McLean and Pratt buffer; Sikora-I buffer and Sikora-II buffer. Further, Sikora-II based on the analysed parameters may be considered as an alternative to present SMP buffer...