Diversity of Soil Nematodes in Agricultural Fields with Different Crops

Abstract

Agriculture has been significant part of the Indian livelihood since ages. As agriculture rely upon the various aspects such as quality of soil, soil minerals and nematodes present in soil. In the present project of soil nematode diversity is successfully estimated by using nematode extraction method given by Cobb (1918). The experiments were performed on soil sample which were collected from four different sites during the study. These four sites were agricultural fields located in Sri Anandpur Sahib (India) with different crops viz; Site 1: Agricultural field with vegetable crops, Site 2: Agricultural field with oilseed crops, Site 3: Agricultural field with wheat crops, Site 4: Agricultural field with Maize crop. The estimation part of the study was performed at PG Zoology Laboratory of PG Department of Zoology, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College, Sri Anandpur Sahib, Punjab, India. The six nematode species were recorded with 100% frequency along with sixteen species of nematodes with 90% frequency of occurrence in all agricultural sites selected during present study. Additionally, eighteen nematode species were recorded with 80% frequency of occurrence in all sites. Apart from this, the nematode species H. indicus and T. hynchus spp. were recorded with 70% frequency of occurrence. It can be deduced from the present experimental program that the beneficial nematodes were present abundantly in all the soil samples of selected sites. Thus, it can be stated that, to improve the soil fertility the eco-friendly agricultural practices would be an efficient approach as it foster the soil nematode diversity.