Soil Science

Effective neutralizing value or ENV means a relative value using the calcium oxide content, magnesium oxide content, and fineness to express the effectiveness of the agricultural liming mineral in neutralizing soil acidity.
Dolomite is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium and magnesium carbonate.
Neutralizing value of Dolomite is 108.7

1 mEq of calcium = 0.5 mmol of elemental calcium
                            = 20 mg of elemental calcium per mEq.
Calcium can be measured by the amount of calcium salt or the amount of the elemental calcium in milligrams, in milliequivalents or millimoles.

Soil water potential is defined as “the amount of work that must be done per unit quantity of pure water to transport reversibly and isothermally to the soil water at a considered point, an infinitesimal quantity of water from a reference pool.
Soil water potential is the sum of four different components: gravitational potential + the matric potential + the pressure potential + the osmotic potential.
Soil water potential per unit mass is expressed as L²T²

Metamorphic rock arises from the transformation of existing rock into new types of rock in a process called metamorphosis. It makes up a large part of the Earth’s crust and 12% of the Earth’s land surface.
The main forces governing the formation of metamorphic rocks are both Heat and pressure. These rocks are subjected to high heat, high pressure and mineral-rich fluids.

Phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group, or ester derived from phosphoric acid. The phosphate or orthophosphate ion [PO₄]^-3 is derived from phosphoric acid by the removal of three protons.
At soil pH around or more than 9, [PO₄]^-3 is the principle phosphate ion available in the soil.

Operation flood programs relate to a white revolution which was launched on 13^th January 1970, for boosting the milk supply in our country. This revolution transformed India from a milk deficient nation into the world’s largest milk producer.
It was launched to help farmers direct their development and give them control of the resources they create.

Zeolites are microporous, three-dimensional crystalline solids of aluminium silicate. Zeolites have small openings of fixed size in them which allow small molecules to pass through them easily but larger molecules cannot pass through them, that is why they are also called molecular sieves.
Zeolites come under the group of Tectosilicates, these are framework silicates that have a three-dimensional framework silicate tetrahedral with SiO₂ or a 1 : 2 ratio.

DAP ( Diammonium phosphate) is the most common phosphate fertilizer in India. It is one of a series of water soluble ammonium phosphate salts that can be produced when ammonia is with phosphoric acid.
DAP is used as a fertilizer, it contains 18% nitrogen and 46% of available phosphorus.

Molybdenum is one of the essential plant nutrients required for the growth and development of the plant in trace amounts. It is the element required by several enzymes important to animal and plant metabolism.
Molybdenum is a component of enzymes are aldehyde oxidase, sulphite oxidase, formate dehydrogenase, nitrate reductase and nitrogenase.

The capacity of the soil to be molded wet, i.e. to change shape in response to stress and to maintain that shape when the stress is removed is termed Plasticity.
The plasticity of soil is its ability to undergo deformation without cracking. It is an important index property of fine-grained soil, especially for clayey soils.