Impact of different Tillage practices on Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Pool in Rice-Wheat Cropping System
Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown sequentially in an annual rotation, constitute a rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) and in a system occupy nearly 13.5 million hectares area in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) of South Asia. Conventional agriculture can result in loss of organic matter (OM), resulting in degradation of cultivated soil.
A study was conducted to assess the impact of different tillage treatments in rice and wheat cropping system on soil organic carbon and nitrogen pool. The experiment was carried out in split plot design with four main plot treatments viz. P1 (direct dry seeding by zero till drill), P2 (direct seeding of sprouted rice in puddle condition), P3 (hand transplanting) and P4 (transplanting by self-propelled rice trans planter) while the sub plot treatment (for wheat) included T1 (conventional sowing), T2 (bed planting), T3 (strip till drilling) and T4 (zero till drilling). Significant variations in SOC and soil nitrogen pool were observed in wheat tillage treatments for D1 (0-10cm) soil depth. The T4 and T3 treatments had significantly higher values of SOC pool as compared to T1. Similar trend was also observed for soil nitrogen. Rice tillage treatments did not have any significant impact on SOC and soil nitrogen at D1 or subsequent depths. The summarized depths 0-30 and 0-60 cm did not show any impact of the tillage treatments on SOC or soil nitrogen pools. In rice tillage treatments, SOC pool ranged from 26.06 Mg/m3 (P4) to 27.61 Mg/m3 (P1) while the range for wheat tillage treatment was 26.30 Mg/m3 (T4) to 26.75 Mg/m3 (T1). At D1 depth soil N pool was found to be statistically higher for T3 and T4 tillage treatments in wheat, whereas T2 tillage treatment was found to be statistically at par with T1. This is because of the presence of higher amount of SOM in T3 and T4. A high and positive correlation between SOC and total N was observed because most of the nitrogen present in soil is in organic form.
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