Green manure, an amazing crop for soil amendment and saline soil reduction of the Northeast of Thailand (I-san)

                    In the past, besides using Sesbania rostata as a green manure for soil amendment in the area with saline soil, Land Development Department also promoted using Crotalaria juncea (sunn hemp) as a green manure plant with the objective to increase organic matter and improve soil. Moreover, planting and storing seeds can be done more easily than other green manure. This can also be planted and used as soil amendment together with various approaches, which has been accepted by farmers in every area. Due to problems of degraded soils used in cultivating industrial crops for a long time, the soils have been degraded chemically and physically with low fertility. Soil texture is characterized by being sandy clay loam. Flaky salt stain was found on the soil surface and the soil is saline with lack of water in the dry season. This also includes the fact that the area is outside the irrigation zone, making farmers unable to cultivate rice and obtain yields as needed. As a result, household incomes are low. Therefore, knowledge of using green manure plants has been implemented in the area with saline soils for growing rice together with using fermented bio-extracts from banana shoots and chemical fertilizers application according to advice.