Treatment of soil sickness

 Due to overuse without rest, soil becomes deficient in the requisite nutrients and loses its fertility. Rotation of crops and vegetables, such as peas and beans, helps to remove the deficiency of nutrients. Plants such as peas add nitrogen to the soil and thus increase its binding property as well as productivity. The roots and off-shoots  of  the crops and their remains are left in  the field for a certain period of  time to protect the soil from erosion. 

It is found that excessive irrigation causes complete saturation or water logging of the soil, which consequently loses productivity, partially or completely. As a result of over irrigation in  some areas, salinity and alkalinity of  the soil increases, making it "sick".  This kind of'soil sickness can be controlled by, first of all, sealing off all points of leakage from canals, reservoirs, tanks and ponds, and use of only the required amount of water. Alkalinity and salinity of the soil can also be reduced by  application of some chemicals like gypsum (a  chalk like substance, from which Plaster of Paris is made), phosphogypsum (gypsum with phosphates), pyrites (sulphides  of copper,  iron etc.) in addition to organic manures and fertilisers. Planting  of salt resistant plants such as barley, millets, soya, cotton, spinach, date palm is another way of overcoming the problem of salination of the soil.