Tillage and mulch effects on productivity and water use of pea and soil carbon stocks

Soil management can notably influence crop production under rainfed farming; however, improper soil management is one of the key factors threatening sustainability. The objective of this 3 years’ study was to evaluate the performance of two types of tillage: conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT) systems with four mulches; paddy straw mulch (PSM), maize stubble (MS), Imperata cylendrica (thatch grass, TG) and no mulch (NM) on yield and water use of pea (Pisum sativum) and physico-chemical properties of soil. CT and PSM have registered 11.1% and 36.1% higher pod yield, 10.0% and 40% improvement of water use efficiency (WUE) and 9.7% and 49.2% better harvest monetary benefit (HMB) over ZT and NM, respectively. Soil moisture content (SMC) was higher with ZT than CT. Placement of mulch has considerably higher SMC on upper soil layer over NM, but at deeper depth, there was no such evidence. The soil organic carbon (SOC) was considerably improved by 4.1% with ZT than CT, whereas, MS improved SOC by 1.9% than NM. The findings clearly suggested that CT along with PSM registered improvement in pod yield, WUE and HMB, but ZT and MS improved SOC at different soil depths and responded to carbon stock management.