Phogat, V.K.Ajeet Singh2016-09-142016-09-142014http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/76726Information about soil physical properties under different management systems is essential for sustainability of agricultural systems. The long-term impact (15 years) of zero tillage in wheat under ricewheat cropping system was evaluated on some physical properties and wheat productivity parameters in three texturally different soils representing entire rice growing area of the State of Haryana. The conventional (CT, two harrowing, one cultivator and planking) and zero tillage (ZT, direct drilling) systems were investigated. The ZT found to increase the soil organic carbon (OC) content significantly to a depth of 0.10, 0.15 and 0.25 m in sandy loam, loam and clay loam soil, respectively, indicating its buildup to deeper depths with increasing fineness of texture. It also resulted in reducing plough pan developed due to continuous CT used in both rice and wheat crops. Soil dispersion reduced significantly at almost all the depths and sites indicating better aggregation. The saturated hydraulic conductivity increased significantly to a depth of 0.10 m with variable magnitude in different textured soils. The increase in magnitude for surface layer was highest in loam (51 %) followed by sandy loam (40 %) and clay loam (38 %) soil. Although water retention and aeration porosity increased in all the three soils under ZT but a significant increase was observed in moisture content at field capacity to a greater depth (0.15 m) in clay loam soil. Water intake rate also increased significantly in clay loam soil (28 %) over the CT treatment. The root biomass measured in 0.4 m soil depth was significantly higher in all the soils but it was highest in sandy loam followed by loam and clay loam soil under both the tillage systems. In addition, ZT favoured the deep penetration of roots in all the soil types. Overall effect of improvement in the soil physical properties under ZT resulted in significant increase in mass of grains and consequently significant increase in yield of wheat in clay loam soil as compared to CT treatment whereas no such effects were observed in other soils. Thus, the results indicate that the ZT practice in wheat under rice-wheat cropping system may be adopted for sustaining the productivity of ricewheat system, however, the practice is more suitable in fine textured soils as compared to medium or coarse textured soils.enIndo-Gangetic Plains, Rice-wheat system, Soil physical properties, Wheat productivity, Zero tillageThesis