Puniya, RamphoolAhmad, Nesar2023-04-102023-04-102023-03Preferred for your work. Nesar Ahmad. 2023. Effect of Tillage and Residue Management Practices on Soil Quality and Productivity of Wheat in Rice wheat Cropping System37025https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810196230Theinvestigation entitled “Effect of Tillage and Residue Management Practices on Soil Quality and Productivity of Wheat in Rice-Wheat Cropping System” was conducted at Research Farm, Division of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, SKUAST-Jammu, Chatha inRabi 2020-21and 2021-22 to study the effect of tillage and residue management practices on soil quality and productivity of wheat.The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) comprising of two tillage (zero and conventional) as factor A and five rice residue management practices viz., 100% rice residue, 100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN, 100% rice residue + PUSA decomposer, 100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN + PUSA decomposer and no residue (control) as factor B. The results based on pooled means of two years revealed that conventional-tilled sown wheat with100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN + PUSA decomposer recordedhighestyield attributes, grain and straw yields and NPK uptake which was statistically comparable with conventional-tilled sown wheat with 100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN, zero-tilled sown wheat with100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN + PUSA decomposer and zero-tilled sown wheat with 100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN and significantly higher than other treatments. With respect to soil properties,zero-tilled sown wheat acquired appreciably lower bulk density and higher available NPK, organic carbon, mineral nitrogen, urease enzyme and microbial populations at harvest than conventional tilled sown wheat during both the years. Among residue management practices, all residue bearing treatments performed statisticallysimilar with eachother, but recorded considerably higher value of above-mentioned soil properties than no residue (control) during both the studyyears. From economic perspective, based on overall means of two years, zero-tilled sown wheat with 100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN + PUSA decomposer and zero-tilled sown wheat with 100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDNrecorded lower cost of cultivation and higher gross returns, net returns and B:C ratio. Hence, zero tillage with 100% rice residue + 25% additional N over RDN with or without PUSA decomposer found economically viableand most promising optionsof residue management forrealizing higher productivity and better soil properties.EnglishThesis