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.
Development of leaf nutrient norms and identification of yield-limiting nutrients using DRIS in sapota cv. Kalipatti.
A survey was conducted in 106 orchards growing sapota cv. Kalipatti in Raichur, Dharwad and Belgaum districts of Northern Karnataka for developing leaf nutrient norms through Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) for nutrient management. Leaf samples collected were processed and analyzed for macro-and micronutrient status and a data bank was established. The entire population was divided into two sub-groups, namely, low-and high-yielding types to derive the norms. Fifty-five nutrient expressions were chosen as diagnostic norms using DRIS, which have shown higher variance and lower coefficient of variation that are found to have greater diagnostic precision viz., N/K (1.731), N/Ca (0.928), Mg/N (0.360), Fe/N (99.89), N/Cu (0.104), N/B (0.037), Mg/Ca (0.329), Ca/B (0.040), Mg/S (1.103), Fe/Mg (278.6), Mg/Zn (0.037), Mg/B (0.013), Fe/Zn (10.39) etc. The nutritional balance index (NBI) indicated an overall imbalance of nutrients based on sum of the indices, irrespective of sign. Diagnosis of nutrient imbalance through DRIS indices indicated that potassium, boron and zinc to be the most common yield-limiting nutrients in the orchards. In addition, five nutrient ranges/standards were derived using mean and standard deviation as deficient, low, optimum, high and excess for each nutrient, to serve as a guide for diagnostics. Optimum leaf N ranged from 1.51 to 2.09%, P from 0.06 to 0.15% and K from 0.83 to 1.44%. The optimum concentration ranged from 1.36 to 2.34% for Ca, 0.54 to 0.68% for Mg and 0.48 to 0.80 for S. Among the micronutrients, optimum Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and B concentrations ranged from 109 to 206 mg kg -1 , 49 to 99 mg kg -1 , 13.3 to 21.9 mg kg -1 , 3.76 to 9.10 mg kg -1 and 34.8 to 66.8 mg kg -1 , respectively, for sapota cv. Kalipatti.
Letting Women in? Gender Mainstreaming in Regional Policies
Gender mainstreaming has over the last ten years become the dominant strategy of integrating gender issues in public policy. This article presents regional policy as a broad and increasingly important policy field to study, and analyses gender mainstreaming in this policy field in the Norwegian and the Swedish contexts. How do problem representations surrounding “gender equality” and “gender mainstreaming” produce meanings of gender as well as construct possibilities for change? The article shows that, despite some differences between the two countries, gender mainstreaming in regional policy can to a large extent be read as meaning “women”. Women are in this context given a narrow subject position and are constructed as lacking what it takes to produce sustainable regional growth. The concluding discussion highlights the relations between the implementation of gender mainstreaming and neo‐liberal political trends.