Impact of long term zero tillage in wheat on soil properties and water productivity
Loading...
Date
2019-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
CCSHAU, Hisar
Abstract
The present study on “Impact of long term zero tillage in wheat on soil properties and water productivityˮ was conducted during 2017-18 and 2018-19 on an on-going long term experiment on „Effect of varying moisture regimes in zero-till wheat succeeding mungbean and sorghum‟ since 2006 at Soil Research Farm, Department of Soil Science, CCS HAU, Hisar. The experiments consisted of two cropping systems (mungbean-wheat, MW and sorghum-wheat, SW), three tillage practices viz. CT-CT (conventional tillage in both kharif & rabi seasons), CT-ZT (conventional tillage in kharif & zero tillage in rabi seasons) and ZT-ZT (zero tillage in both kharif & rabi seasons); and three moisture regimes (IW/CPE = 0.60, 0.75 and 0.90). The soil physical, chemical, biological properties, nutrient availability, yield and yield attributes, and water productivity in wheat were measured using standard methods. The simulation of water dynamics was carried out using Hydrus-1D model. The results revealed that adoption of long term zero tillage practice ZT-ZT for twelve years improved the physical, chemical and biological properties as compared to the conventional tillage CT-CT. The long term zero tillage reduced the sub-surface compaction. Highest value of saturated hydraulic conductivity of 1.17 cm hr-1 in surface soil was observed in ZT-ZT under MW cropping system at M0.90. The ZT-ZT increased the soil organic carbon by 24.75 and 23.16% in 0-15 cm depth as compared to CT-CT in MW and SW, respectively over all the moisture regimes. Available NPK and micronutrients except Cu and uptake of NPK and micronutrients were significantly highest under ZT-ZT in MW cropping system at M0.90. The microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were significantly higher in MW cropping system as compared to SW cropping system. The grain and straw yield of wheat was higher in MW as compared to SW and in ZT-ZT as compared to CT-CT during 2017-18 and 2018-19. The water productivity in wheat was observed highest at moisture regime of IW/CPE =0.75. Water productivity was significantly higher in ZT-ZT as compared to CT-CT over all the moisture regimes under MW and SW cropping systems during both the years 2017-18 and 2018-19. Hydrus-1D model might be used as a tool to simulate water dynamics under filed conditions for efficient use of water.