Effect of cropping systems on nutrient dynamics and soil health in an acid Alfisol
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Date
2023-06-02
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CSK HPKV, Palampur
Abstract
The field experiment entitled “Effect of cropping systems on nutrient dynamics and soil health in
an acid Alfisol” was undertaken at Bhadiarkhar experimental farm, Department of Agronomy,
College of Agriculture, CSK HPKV, Palampur (H.P.) during 2019-2020 and 2020-21. The
experiment consisted of ten cropping sequences viz., maize-wheat, maize-gobhi sarson + toria,
dhaincha-early cabbage-french bean, sunhemp-vegetable pea-french bean, maize + soybean chickpea + linseed, rice-wheat + gram, hybrid sorghum + hybrid bajra-oats + sarson, hybrid
sorghum + hybrid bajra-ryegrass + berseem, babycorn-broccoli-french bean and maize-turnip tomato in randomized block design which were replicated thrice. The soil of the site was acidic in
nature (pH=5.5), silty clay loam in texture, medium in available nitrogen (350.6 kg ha-1
) and
potassium (147.3 kg ha-1
) and high in available phosphorus (44.2 kg ha-1
). Soil samples from 0-
0.15 m depth were collected before and after the harvest of each cropping cycle (2019-2020 and
2020-21) and analyzed for various physical, chemical and biological properties. In addition,
different forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were also determined following standard
analytical procedures. Maize-turnip-tomato recorded significantly higher maize grain equivalent
yield, net returns and BC ratio. The total uptakes of N, P, and K in a cropping system were
highest in sunhemp-vegetable pea-french bean while Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu uptake were maximum
under maize-turnip-tomato. The cost of cultivation was highest for babycorn-broccoli-french
bean cropping system due to labour intensive nature of vegetable crops in the sequence. The
incorporation of green manures significantly improved the soil organic carbon content, cation
exchange capacity, available N, P, K, S, exchangeable Ca and Mg, DTPA extractable Fe, Mn, Zn
and Cu, microbial count of bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, microbial biomass C, dehydrogenase
acid phosphatase, urease and soil respiratory activity. Among N fractions, serine + threonine-N,
total hydrolysable-N and Nitrate-N exhibited maximum correlation with total N uptake. Amongst
P fractions, NaOH-Po, HCl-P and H2O-P for P uptake were found important. In case of K, water
soluble-K and exchangeable-K were the dominant fractions. The N, P, K uptake and MGEY were
found to be positively and significantly correlated with pH, SOC, CEC, MBC, dehydrogenase,
acid phosphatase and SRA.