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Abstract
In a field experiment conducted during 2002 to 2004 in silty clay loam soil at Pantnagar, India, treatment of trash burning + Sesbania aculeata green manure (GM) incorporation gave the highest increases of 50.6 and 17.7% in ratoon cane yield and 15.0 and 19.4% in wheat grain yield over trash removal and trash burning treatments, respectively. Soil organic C and available N after ratoon and wheat crops were highest with trash removal + GM incorporation and available P and K with trash removal + GM mulch. The different treatments of trash and GM management were also superior to trash removal and trash burning in organic C and available N and P in soil at termination of the study. Soil microbial biomass C and dehydrogenase activity at the end were at a maximum with trash burning + GM mulch and trash removal + GM mulch treatments, respectively. Compared to trash removal and trash burning, counts of bacteria in soil after ratoon and wheat crops were significantly more only with different GM treatments; however, all GM and trash application treatments recorded significantly higher counts of fungi and actinomycetes. Irrespective of the treatments, population of total bacteria in soil decreased, while that of fungi and actinomycetes increased as compared to their initial counts following sugarcane-ratoon-wheat sequence.