Impacts of conservation agriculture on soil aggregation and aggregate-associated N under an irrigated agroecosystem of the Indo-Gangetic Plains

Conservation agriculture effects on soil organic carbon accumulation and crop productivity under a rice–wheat cropping system in the western Indo-Gangetic Plains

“…Conventional tillage system has been shown to increase decomposition of SOM compared with the ZT system (Guggenberger et al, 1999;Bhattacharyya et al, 2012b), leading to less labile C pools in topsoil. Like the results of this study, Bhattacharyya et al (2013b) also observed ZT plots had higher labile-C than CT plots after nine years in a rice-wheat system in the Indian Himalayas. Generally, we found DSR-ZTW plots with rice residue retention or brown manuring had higher labile-C content as a proportion of total SOC than CT plots in both 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil layers in this study.…”

“…The benefits of retaining C in soils to sustain crop productivity by adopting conservation practices have been well documented in temperate and sub-temperate regions (West and Post, 2002;Bhattacharyya et al, 2012aBhattacharyya et al, , 2013b. However, very few studies estimated total SOC accumulation rates of residue and tilled DSR-ZTW management practices under tropical agro-ecosystems.…”

Soil Conservation Issues in India

“…ZT enhanced macro-aggregate-associated SOC and intra-aggregate particulate organic C under a rainfed finger millet-lentil system, but only in the top-soil [80]. In the Indo-Gangetic Plains, top-soil under ZT with bed planting had greater macro-aggregates than conventional tillage with bed planting after four years [95].…”

Least limiting water range for two conservation agriculture cropping systems in India

“…Aquino (1998) observed that wheat on beds resulted in 8% higher yield, used $25% less irrigation water, and encountered at least 25% less operational costs compared with conventionally tilled wheat using flood irrigation. Permanent raised beds with residue retention improved aggregation compared to conventionally tilled raised beds (Bhattacharyya et al, 2013a).…”