Replacement of rice-wheat cropping system with alternative diversified systems concerning crop productivity and their impact on soil carbon and nutrient status in soil profile of north-west India

Abstract

The depth-wise depletion of soil organic carbon (OC), macro, micro, and secondary nutrients under the rice-wheat system has resulted in multi-nutrient deficiencies and a decline in crop productivity, emphasizing the replacement of rice-wheat with alternate cropping systems like maize-wheat, cotton-wheat, soybean-wheat, and moongbean-wheat to restore soil fertility and productivity. Long-term investigations (since 2016) revealed that there was a depth-wise decline in pH, EC, OC, and nutrients in soil profile (Udic Ustrochept, Inceptisols) among different cropping systems. The practice of deep-rooted cropping systems (maize-wheat and cotton-wheat) led to maximum OC, soluble calcium, and magnesium, while legume-based systems (especially soybean-wheat) led to maximum available phosphorus (30.86 kg ha⁻¹), boron (0.49 mg kg⁻¹), and DTPA-zinc (1.82 mg kg⁻¹) in soil profile (0–120 cm). This system also led to the maximum surface soil OC, available phosphorus, soluble magnesium, DTPA-zinc, and boron. From the production point of view, soybean-wheat system (115.65 q ha⁻¹) led to higher system grain productivity as compared to rice-wheat system (109.60 q ha⁻¹). Therefore, the practice of alternative cropping systems like soybean-wheat and cotton-wheat helps in the build-up of nutrient status by playing a pivotal role in influencing the surface and depth-wise distribution of organic carbon and nutrients in the soil.

Keywords:

• Inceptisols
• Udic Ustrochept
• cropping systems
• soil organic carbon
• soil properties
• system productivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author’s contributions

Sharanjit Kaur Brar and Salwinder Singh Dhaliwal set up the experiment, Vivek Sharma conducted the experiment, Sandeep Sharma and Manpreet Kaur provided the material of experiment, Sharanjit Kaur Brar and Salwinder Singh Dhaliwal wrote this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.