Singh, K.B.Tejinder Kaur2023-12-112023-12-112022Tejinder Kaur (2022). Effect of different cropping systems on physical quality of soil (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810202547The study entitled, “Effect of different cropping systems on physical quality of soil” was conducted from the long-term experiment of “All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Integrated Farming Systems (ICAR)” continuing since 2017 at research farm of School of Organic Farming, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Ten cropping systems viz. rice-wheat (R-W), maize-wheat (M-W), basmati rice-wheat-cowpea (BR-W-C), maizemustard-cowpea (M-Mtd-C), maize-potato-spring groundnut (M-Po-SG), maize-peas-spring groundnut (M-P-SG), (maize+cowpea)-maize-oats-sathi maize ((M+C)-M-O-SM), sorghum multicut-barseem (Srg-B), maize-potato-onion (M-Po-On), baby corn-potato-okra (BC-PoOk) were selected for present study. (M+C)-M-O-SM resulted significantly highest soil organic carbon, mean weight diameter and water stable aggregates while lowest in R-W. Bulk density was significantly higher in R-W compared to M-W, M-Po-On and M-Mtd-C. Moisture retention, maximum water holding capacity and saturated hydraulic conductivity was higher in M-Mtd-C and lowest in R-W. Srg-B had higher cumulative infiltration and drainage rate while lowest in R-W. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity was more in R-W compared to M-W at same moisture content while at maximum moisture it was highest in MMtd-C and lowest in BC-Po-Ok. After rabi season, soil bulk density was significantly less while aggregate associated carbon and porosity were significantly higher compared to kharif season. Soil quality index for different cropping systems followed the order: (M+C)-M-O-SM =M-P-SG (0.535)> M-Mtd-C (0.525)>M-Po-SG (0.509)> BC-Po-Ok (0.500)> M-W (0.499)>BR-W-C (0.492)> M-Po-On (0.488)> Srg-B (0.486)> R-W (0.483). The four cropping systems found to be best according to soil physical quality index were (maize+cowpea)-maize-oats-spring groundnut, maize-pea-spring groundnut, maizeGM/mustard, due to high SOC, aggregation, WSA, moisture retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity and lower soil bulk density.EnglishThesis