Effect of crop residue retention and nutrient application rates on soil health dynamics: A study on vertisols of central India

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2020-21 and 2021-22 to evaluate the effect of different levels of crop residue retention and nutrient levels on performance of wheat crop under conservation agriculture (CA). The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design (FRBD) comprised of 16 combinations of 4 residue level (0%, 30%, 60% and 90%) and 4 nutrient doses (N -RDF (120:60:40 kg 1 N,P O and K O ha-1), N -75% N+100% P O and K O ha-1, N -75% P O +100% N and 2 5 2 2 2 5 2 3 2 5 K O ha-1, N -75% K O+100% N and P O ha-1) with 3 replication under ongoing 2 4 2 2 5 Consortium Research Platform on Conservation Agriculture (CRP-CA) experiment at ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). Among yield attributes viz., number of ear head m-1 row length (158.69), length of ear head (17.75 cm), number of grains ear head-1 (78.5), weight of grains ear head-1 (4.41 g) and test weight (39.88 g) were recorded under higher level of crop residue retention (90%). Significantly higher grain yield (6474 kg ha-1) and straw yield (9650 kg ha-1) was also recorded under higher residue level retention treatment. The effect of nutrient levels was found significant on straw and biological yield Significant improvement in soil physical and chemical properties were recorded in all the levels of residue retention treatments in comparison to without / no residue retention treatment. The present investigation proved that retention of higher levels (90%) of crop residue results in significant improvement in crop yield with saving of nutrients to the tune of 25%.