Impact of tillage on soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration rates in rice-wheat cropping system
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Date
2008-10
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted at Crop Research Centre (CRC) of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, District Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand) to evaluate the effect of tillage on soil properties, soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration rates along with crop performance in rice-wheat rotation. The experiment was laid in split plot design with four rice tillage treatment viz. P1 (direct dry seeding), P2 (seeding by drum seeder), P3 (hand transplanting) and P4 (Machine transplanting) serving as main plots, while the subplots consisted of four wheat tillage treatments viz. T1 (conventional sowing), T2 (bed planting), T3 (strip till drilling) and T4 (zero till drilling). The results have been obtained after 3 years of experiment. The results clearly indicated significant changes in soil organic carbon (SOC), soil nitrogen and saturated hydraulic conductivity due to tillage treatments at 0-10 cm depth, beyond which no significant changes were observed. P1 and T4 treatments had significantly higher values of SOC and soil nitrogen. Highest differential SOC and nitrogen sequestration rates among rice tillage treatments were obtained for P1 (0.717 t/ha/year and 0.083 t/ha/year respectively). While the same in wheat tillage treatment was obtained for T4 which was 1.147 t/ha/year and 0.103 t/ha/year respectively. Significantly higher values of mean weight diameter, geometric mean diameter and water stable aggregates were obtained for P1 and T4. Greater storage of SOC was observed in largest aggregate size fraction, indicating the importance of maintenance of large size aggregate fractions in soils. Grain yield (highest for P1 and T4) for rice and wheat were significantly affected due to their respective tillage treatments. Hence in rice-wheat cropping system zero and reduced tillage can help to mitigate the ill effects of increasing CO2 by enhancing SOC storage, maintaining soil structure and enhancing yields.
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Thesis-PhD
Keywords
tillage, soil chemistry, soil chemical properties, carbon sequestration, nitrogen, rice, wheat, cropping systems