Background: The field experiment aimed to investigate the effects of various tillage and nutrient management practices on soil physico-chemical properties under wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) during the two consecutive seasons of Rabi 2020-21 and 2021-22. The field experiment was conducted at Norman E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. Methods: The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications, the main plot included three tillage treatments: Zero tillage (ZT), reduced tillage (RT) and conventional tillage (CT). Under sub-plots consisted the five nutrient management practices: Recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF: N 120, P2O5 40, K2O 60), RDF + Farmyard Manure (FYM) at 5 tonnes/ha, RDF + Zinc Sulphate at 25 kg/ha, 75% RDF + FYM at 10 tonnes/ha, 75% RDF + FYM at 5 tonnes/ha + Zinc Sulphate at 12.5 kg/ha. This setup resulted in 15 treatment combinations integrating different tillage practices and nutrient management practices. Result: The results revealed that zero tillage and nutrient management did not show effect on soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon, available NPK and bulk density during both the years of experiment. However, 75% RDF + FYM at 5 tonnes/ha + Zinc Sulphate at 12.5 kg/ha exhibited higher values in all evaluated properties, with organic carbon showing a significantly higher as compared to NM1 (RDF: 120:60:40), NM2 (RDF + Zinc Sulphate at 25 kg/ha) and NM3 (RDF + FYM at 5 tonnes/ha), but it was statistically at par with NM4 (75% RDF + FYM at 10 tonnes/ha).
Yadav et al. (Tue,) studied this question.