Tillage, Crop Establishment, and Weed Management for Improving Productivity, Nutrient Uptake, and Soil P hysico- chemical Properties in Soybean-wheat Cropping Syste m

Abstract

The effect of tillage (conventional and zero tillage), crop establishment (raised-bed and flat-bed), and weed management practices (herbicide alone and integrated approach) was studied on productivity, profitability, nutrient up take and physico-chemical properties of soil in soybean–wheat cropping system, at New Delhi during 2010–2012. Sixteen treatment combinations consisting of four tillage a nd crop establishment practices, viz . Conventional Tillage–raised-bed (CT–bed), CT–flat-b ed, Zero Tillage–raised-bed (ZT– bed) and ZT–flat-bed; and four weed management prac tices, viz . unweeded control, herbicide+Hand Weeding (HW), herbicide combination, and crop residue + herbicide were laid out in a split-plot design. S oybean produced higher seed yield (+7.6%) under raised-bed and wheat under flat-bed (+6.2%), but th e system productivity was highest under CT – flat-bed. Pre-emergence application of pendimethali n followed by HW gave higher yield of soybean, while all weed control tre atments were found equally good for wheat. Conventional tillage resulted in higher upta ke by soybean of N (+5.0%), P (+4.4%) and K (+3.1%) than ZT, particularly under raised-be d conditions. In wheat, CT and ZT resulted in almost similar nutrient uptake under fl at-bed. Total nutrient uptake of the system was similar for N and P under all tillage an d crop establishment practices, while herbicide+HW gave 4.9 – 7.2% higher uptake than herbicide combination or cr op residue+herbicide. Net benefit: cost ratio of the s ystem was the highest (> 2.0) under ZT – flat-bed and herbicide combination. There was beneficial effect on physico-chemical properties of soil under ZT and residue application , but it is necessary to run the experiment in long-term to see the cumulative effec t over time. Keywords: Benefit, Cost ratio, Profitability, Raised-bed, Zero tillage.