Long-Term Effect of Crop Establishment Methods and Tillage Practices on Soil Physical Properties in Rice-Wheat System

Rice-wheat system, the most prevalent cropping system of the Indo-Gangetic plain, nowadays poses a threat to its sustainability owing to deterioration of soil physical parameters, disposal of rice straw and declining yield trends. The present study was aimed to identify the best option of crop establishment, tillage and rice straw retention in rice-wheat system after long-term (2010–2020). The field experiment was conducted on typic Ustochrept sandy clay loam soil. Treatments comprised direct seeded rice with zero tillage (DSRZT), direct seeded rice with conventional tillage (DSRCT), direct seeded rice with reduced tillage (DSRRT) and puddled transplanted rice (PTR) in rice as main plots; and conventionally tilled without rice residue (CTW), zero tilled without residue (ZTW) and zero tilled wheat with residue retention (ZTW+R) in wheat as sub plots. The results revealed that physical parameters like bulk density and soil penetration resistance decreased while, plant available water content, infiltration and hydraulic conductivity of the soil increased significantly in DSRZT, DSRRT and ZTW+R compared to PTR and CTW. Amount of organic carbon enhanced from .42% to .55% and .34% to .39% in both 0–15 and 15–30 cm soil layers, respectively, in DSRZT compared to PTR. Aggregation status also improved in ZT-based treatments in contrast to PTR and CTW treatments. However, the average grain yield of rice was higher by 2.15–19.4% in PTR compared to DSR treatments while; ZTW+R had an advantage of 4.98% and 7.75% in contrast to CTW and ZTW, respectively, in terms of average wheat yield.