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Conservation agriculture based integrated crop management sustains productivity and economic profitability along with soil properties of the maize-wheat rotation.
- Source :
- Scientific Reports; 10/22/2022, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p1-13, 13p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Field experiments were conducted to evaluate eight different integrated crop management (ICM) modules for 5 years in a maize-wheat rotation (M<subscript>WR</subscript>); wherein, ICM<subscript>1&2</subscript>-ˈbusiness-as-usualˈ (conventional flatbed maize and wheat, ICM<subscript>3&4</subscript>-conventional raised bed (CT<subscript>RB</subscript>) maize and wheat without residues, ICM<subscript>5&6</subscript>-conservation agriculture (CA)-based zero-till (ZT) flatbed maize and wheat with the residues, and ICM<subscript>7&8-</subscript> CA-based ZT raised bed maize and wheat with the residues. Results indicated that the ICM<subscript>7&8</subscript> produced significantly (p < 0.05) the highest maize grain yield (5 years av.) which was 7.8–21.3% greater than the ICM<subscript>1-6</subscript>. However, across years, the ICM<subscript>5-8</subscript> gave a statistically similar wheat grain yield and was 8.4–11.5% greater than the ICM<subscript>1-4</subscript>. Similarly, the CA-based residue retained ICM<subscript>5-8</subscript> modules had given 9.5–14.3% (5 years av.) greater system yields in terms of maize grain equivalents (M<subscript>GEY</subscript>) over the residue removed CT-based ICM<subscript>1&4</subscript>. System water productivity (S<subscript>WP</subscript>) was the highest with ICM<subscript>5-8</subscript>, being 10.3–17.8% higher than the ICM<subscript>1-4</subscript>. Nevertheless, the highest water use (T<subscript>WU</subscript>) was recorded in the CT flatbed (ICM<subscript>1&2</subscript>), ~ 7% more than the raised bed and ZT planted crops with or without the residues (ICM<subscript>4-8</subscript>). Furthermore, the ICM<subscript>1-4</subscript> had produced 9.54% greater variable production costs compared to the ICM<subscript>5-8</subscript>, whereas, the ICM<subscript>5-8</subscript> gave 24.3–27.4% additional returns than the ICM<subscript>1-4</subscript>. Also, different ICM modules caused significant (p < 0.05) impacts on the soil properties, such as organic carbon (S<subscript>OC</subscript>), microbial biomass carbon (S<subscript>MBC</subscript>), dehydrogenase (S<subscript>DH</subscript>), alkaline phosphatase (S<subscript>AP</subscript>), and urease (U<subscript>RE</subscript>) activities. In 0.0–0.15 m soil profile, residue retained CA-based (ICM<subscript>5-8</subscript>) modules registered a 7.1–14.3% greater S<subscript>OC</subscript> and 10.2–17.3% S<subscript>MBC</subscript> than the ICM<subscript>1-4</subscript>. The sustainable yield index (S<subscript>YI</subscript>) of M<subscript>WR</subscript> was 13.4–18.6% greater under the ICM<subscript>7&8</subscript> compared to the ICM<subscript>1-4.</subscript> Hence, this study concludes that the adoption of the CA-based residue retained ICMs in the M<subscript>WR</subscript> could sustain the crop yields, enhance farm profits, save water and improve soil properties of the north-western plans of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- CROP management
CROP rotation
CROP residues
CROPS
AGRICULTURE
CROP yields
CORN
WHEAT
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 159897655
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05962-w