No-Tillage with Residue Retention and Foliar Sulphur Nutrition Enhances Productivity, Mineral Biofortification and Crude Protein in Rainfed Pearl Millet under Typic Haplustepts: Elucidating the Responses Imposed on an Eight-Year Long-Term Experiment

Abstract

Yield limitation and widespread sulphur (S) deficiency in pearl-millet-nurturing dryland soils has emerged as a serious threat to crop productivity and quality. Among diverse pathways to tackle moisture and nutrient stress in rainfed ecologies, conservation agriculture (CA) and foliar nutrition have the greatest potential due to their economic and environmentally friendly nature. Therefore, to understand ammonium thiosulphate (ATS)-mediated foliar S nutrition effects on yield, protein content, mineral biofortification, and sulphur economy of rainfed pearl millet under diverse crop establishment systems, a field study was undertaken. The results highlighted that pearl millet grain and protein yield was significantly higher under no-tillage +3 t/ha crop residue mulching (NTCRM) as compared to no-tillage without mulch (NoTill) and conventional tillage (ConvTill), whereas the stover yield under NTCRM and ConvTill remained at par. Likewise, grain and stover yield in foliar S application using ATS 10 mL/L_twice was 19.5% and 13.2% greater over no S application. The sulphur management strategy of foliar-applied ATS 10 mL/L_twice resulted in significant improvement in grain protein content, protein yield, micronutrient fortification, and net returns (₹ 54.6 × 1000) over the control. Overall, ATS-mediated foliar S nutrition can be an alternate pathway to S management in pearl millet for yield enhancement, micronutrient biofortification and grain protein content increase under ConvTill, as well as under the new NTCRM systems.

Double zero-tillage and foliar-P nutrition coupled with bio-inoculants enhance physiological photosynthetic characteristics and resilience to nutritional and environmental stresses in maize–wheat rotation

“…Higher uptake of grain P was observed in the PRBZT-PRBZT system in both maize and wheat crops during both study years. Higher grain yield due to enhanced soil physicochemical and biological properties leading to enhanced P uptake in comparison to CT plots (Govaerts et al, 2007;Ram et al, 2011;Das et al, 2018;Ankit et al, 2022). Because of improved P-nutrition, root and shoot system, P solubilization and mobilization, and foliar-P supplementation, P-fertilization with PSB and AM-fungi versus foliar-P treatment had a significant impact on grain P uptake (Sobhana et al, 2012;Amanullah et al, 2016;Rafiullah et al, 2017;Varatharajan et al, 2019a).…”

“…The foliar-P nutrition can be another noble intervention to supply the P nutrition at critical crop growth stages besides escaping the P-fixation in the alkaline and acid soils. Many researchers have also enumerated the benefits of the foliar nutrition in various crops (Ankit et al, 2022;Bana et al, 2022;Dass et al, 2022).…”

Zinc nano-fertilization enhances wheat productivity and biofortification

“…Further, lower runoff and leaching losses of nanoparticles would reduce soil and air pollution, while providing higher crop yields and nutrient uptake [28, 29]. Further, application of Zn in various formulations, including NPs, assists in enrichment of edible plant parts in Zn, resulting in reduced hidden hunger and Zn malnutrition [30, 31].…”

Elucidating the interactive impact of tillage, residue retention and system intensification on pearl millet yield stability and biofortification under rainfed agro-ecosystems

“…CA has been advocated as a solution to overcome these issues in rainfed dry-land regions (9,13,14). CA helps conserve…”