Assessing Soil Quality Under Long-Term Rice-Based Cropping System Jaladhi Chaudhury Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, West Bengal, India Uttam Kumar Mandal and K. L. Sharma Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santoshnagar, Hyderabad, India H. Ghosh Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, West Bengal, India Biswapati Mandal Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India Abstract: Productivity of the rice-based cropping system is low, and it continues to decline in India because of worsening soil-related constraints. Keeping in view the importance of soil quality in rice-based intensive cropping system, the present investi- gation was undertaken with the objective of identifying several biological, chemical, and physical indicators of soil quality using data collected from a long-term experiment being conducted since 1972 on rice-wheat-jute cropping system in Indo Gangetic alluvial soils of India. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with five treatments, under long-term fertilizer experiment [i.e., control (no fertilizer and manure); 100% of the recommended dose of nitrogen (100% N); 100% of the recommended dose of N and phosphorus (100% NP); 100% of the recommended Received 14 October 2003, Accepted 1 June 2004 Address correspondence to Jaladhi Chaudhury, Department of Soil Science and Microbiology, Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal 700120, India. E-mail: jaladhic@hotmail.com or Uttam Kumar Mandal, Division of Resource Management, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santoshnagar, P.O. Saidabad, Hyderabad 599958, India. E-mail: jaladhic@hotmail.com Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 36: 1141–1161, 2005 Copyright # Taylor & Francis, Inc. ISSN 0010-3624 print/1532-2416 online DOI: 10.1081/CSS-200056885 1141