Soil Nutrient Status and Leaf Nutrient Norms in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Plantations Grown on Southern Plateau of India
Oil palm is a heavy feeder of nutrients and requires balanced and adequate supply of nutrients for optimum growth and yield. Information regarding soil nutrient status and leaf nutrient concentration is very much required for proper fertilizer application. Therefore, a survey was conducted for assessment of soil nutrient status and leaf nutrient concentration in 42 oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq) plantations in the state of Karnataka, situated in southern plateau of India. In surface soil layers, soil acidity (pH), electrical conductivity (EC) and organic carbon (OC) content ranged from 4.91 to 8.74, 0.10 to 2.54 dS m−1 and 1.17 to 28.9 g kg−1 respectively. The values of available potassium (K) (NH4OAc–K), phosphorus (P) (Olsen-P) and exchangeable calcium (Ca) (Exch. Ca) varied from 31.2 to 386 mg kg−1, 7.69 to 242 mg kg−1 and 156 to 1273 mg kg−1 respectively. The concentration of exchangeable magnesium (Mg) (Exch. Mg), available sulphur (S) (CaCl2-S) and hot water soluble boron (B) (HWB) ranged from 52.8 to 307 mg kg−1, 2.25 to 73.5 mg kg−1 and 2.29 to 16.0 mg kg−1 respectively. Diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (DRIS) norms were established for different nutrient expressions and it was used to compute DRIS indices. As per DRIS indices, the order of requirement of nutrients in the region was found to be K > P > nitrogen (N) > B > Mg. Optimum leaf nutrient ranges varied from 2.24 to 2.97 %, 0.08 to 0.14 % and 0.78 to 0.91 % for N, P and K respectively, from 0.74 to 1.53 %, 0.25 to 0.98 % and 0.72 to 1.09 % for Ca, Mg and S respectively and from 5.71 to 31.0 mg kg−1, 7.42 to 12.9 mg kg−1, 33.6 to 58.6 mg kg−1, 82.5 to 681 mg kg−1 and 82.8 to 936 mg kg−1 for B, copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe) respectively. On the basis of DRIS derived sufficiency ranges, 57, 24, 62, 3, 3, 9, 7, 5, and 26 % leaf samples were having less than optimum concentration of N, P, K. Ca, Mg, S, B, Cu and Mn respectively. The optimum ranges developed can be used as a guide for routine diagnostic and advisory purpose for balanced utilization of fertilizers.
Preliminary micronutrients foliar diagnostic norms for litchi (Litchi chinensis sonn) using DRIS
Diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (DRIS) was used as an alternative approach for foliar diagnosis of micronutrients. DRIS norms are generally better than the diagnosis made by sufficiency range method, with the advantage, that DRIS reflects nutrient balance. and identifies the order in which the nutrients are likely to become limiting. The results show that DRIS norms can be used irrespective of variety and position of leaf sampled from the floral or non-floral panicles. According to DRIS approach, the inadequacy level for Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn are 14, 10, 190 and 20 mg kg−1 leaf tissues, respectively.
Gender Politics and Research: Male and Female Violence in Intimate Relationships
This article reviews a wide range of research reports on male and female violence in intimate relationships and highlights the political nature of domestic violence research. The authors review incidence and prevalence-based research that uses quantitative surveys and illustrate how quantitative, family-focussed researchers tend to ignore the political and social context of domestic violence and the complex issues of gender and power. The authors argue that understanding the complexities of domestic violence requires clear definitions of what constitutes domestic violence and multi-method approaches to research, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.