Vol. 19 No. 2
The disparity in soil organic carbon concentrations under short-term conservation agriculture with rice-based cropping systems in a very fine textured soil of lower Indo-Gangetic plain, West Bengal
Author(s): J. DEY SARKAR, A. KUNDU AND P. K. BANDYOPADHYAY
Abstract: The study aimed to evaluate the disparity in soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations using different fertilizer doses, crop residues, tillage, and cropping systems in a very fine textured soil (silt + clay-90%) of lower Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP) of West Bengal. Surface soil (0-10 and 10-20 cm) samples were collected from the plots of short-term (three years) conservation agricultural (CA) practices with rice-based cropping systems [rice-mustard-black gram (RMuB), rice-wheat-green gram (RWG), and rice- lentil-fallow (RLF). Significant variation in SOC was found between the depths of 0-10 and 10-20 cm. The adoption of zero tillage (ZT) and reduced tillage (RT) practices increased 30.9 % and 27.9 %, of the total SOC in the 0-10 soil depths and 12.3 % and 15.5 % in the 10-20 cm soil depth as compared to the conventional tillage (CT) practice. The addition of residue or fertilizer did not impact SOC concentration, even tillage-residue interaction showed no disparity in the short-term experiments. Among the rice-based cropping system, RWG showed the highest change in SOC concentration. Residue addition, minimum soil disturbance, and crop diversification or inclusion of legumes after three years of ZT and RT systems improved SOC and hence the significance of CA in sustaining better soil health was established in the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain.
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