Improvement of Soil Health and System Productivity through Crop Diversification and Residue Incorporation under Jute-Based Different Cropping Systems

Abstract

Crop diversity through residue incorporation is the most important method for sustaining soil health. A field study was conducted over five consecutive years (2012–2017) to see the impact of residue incorporartions in Inceptisol of eastern India. The main plot treatments had five cropping systems (CS), namely, fallow−rice−rice (FRR), jute−rice−wheat (JRW), jute−rice−baby corn (JRBc), jute−rice−vegetable pea (JRGp), jute−rice−mustard−mungbean/green gram (JRMMu), which cinsisted of four sub-plots with varied nutrient and crop residue management (NCRM) levels, namely crops with no residue +75% of the recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) (F1R0), crops with the residue of the previous crops +75% RDF (F1R1), crops with no resiude +100% RDF (F2R0), and crops with residue +100% RDF (F2R1). The highest system productivity was obtained for JRBc (15.3 Mg·ha−1), followed by JRGp (8.81 Mg·ha−1) and JRMMu (7.61 Mg·ha−1); however, the highest sustainability index was found with the JRGp cropping system (0.88), followed by JRMMu (0.82). Among the NCRMs, the highest productivity (8.78 Mg·ha−1) and sustainability index (0.83) were recorded in F2R1. Five soil parameters, namely, bulk density, available K, urease activity, dehydrogenase activity, and soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), were used in the minimum data-set (MDS) for the calculation of the soil quality index (SQI). The best attainment of SQI was found in the JRGp system (0.63), closely followed by the JRMMu (0.61) cropping system.

A Multivariate Approach to Evaluate Reduced Tillage Systems and Cover Crop Sustainability

“…The procedure requires that indicators be selected once they have been surveyed and normalized with linear or non-linear scoring functions, so that higher scores represent better-performing observations. The indicators and their weights were determined using the multivariate analysis method of Andrews et al [42,43], which has been adapted and applied to many studies evaluating long-term practices [23,29], combinations of various crop rotations under different residue managements [44,45] and different tillage practices [46].…”

A Novel Crop Shortlisting Method for Sustainable Agricultural Diversification across Italy

“…To make it sustainable, several features other than food sources were used to select the best UCs. This is because one of the prominent features of UCs is the adaptability to a wider range of biotic and abiotic stresses [39][40][41][42], which can make them become future crops [43]. Crop species with adaptive traits are useful in breeding to improve agroecosystem resilience [44] and, indirectly, farm revenue [17].…”

Indicators of soil quality and crop productivity assessment at a long‐term experiment site in the lower Indo‐Gangetic plains

“…Additionally study brought out legume adoption caused a higher improvement of SQI in Vertisol (0.83) than Inceptisol (0.73) (Kumar et al, 2022). A split plot experiment conducted on lower Indo‐Gangetic Alluvial soil with varying residue retention and crop diversification for 5 years showed greater sustainability and soil quality index in jute‐rice‐vegetable pea (0.83 and 0.63) and jute‐rice‐mustard‐mungbean (0.82 and 0.61) system with bulk density, NH 4 OAc‐K, MBC, urease and dehydrogenase activity as MDS variables (Kumar et al, 2021). Application of enriched compost with inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus on acidic Inceptisol of northeastern India demonstrated a significantly positive impact on soil health majorly in terms of greater phenol oxidase activity over recommended doses (RDF) and RDF with bio fertilization practice, thus signifying the central role played by soil inhabited biological agents in natural resource management (Patra et al, 2022).…”