Effect of tillage and residue management on productivity of soybean and physico-chemical properties of soil in soybean–wheat cropping system

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Former Ph.D Student, Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

2 Director, of Directorate of Weed Science Research, Jabalpur, MP, India.

3 Assistance Professor, Department of Soil Science, University of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Ramin, Mollasani, Khozestan, Iran.

4 Principle Scientist, Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

Abstract

A microplot experiment was conducted in soybean–wheat cropping system
at New Delhi during 2010-11 and 2011-12 to study the effect of continuous or
cyclic tillage, viz., conventional tillage (CT) and zero-tillage (ZT) and residue
management of either soybean (SR) and/or wheat (WR) on yield performance and
soil physico-chemical properties. The experiment was laid out in randomized block
design with two replications in microplots of size 4×1.4 m. Plant height of soybean
was influenced due to tillage and residue management at different growth stages.
All yield attributes of soybean were showed variation due to treatments. The
harmful effects of ZT on yield attributes could be overcome with residue
application on soil surface. The results indicated that tillage and residue
management to the immediate crop of soybean was more important for increasing
grain yield (26%) and stover production (32%) of soybean and the residual effect
of residue to previous soybean was relatively small. The change in organic C was
relatively small even with regular addition of crop residues. There was no change
in available nutrients (N, P and K) due to tillage and residue management
treatments. The variation in soil physical properties was also small and a
significant improvement may be expected over several years of continuous
application of crop residue and ZT.
Keywords: Conventional tillage; Residue management; Soybean; Wheat; Zero
tillage.

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