Role of crop diversification and integrated nutrient management in resilience of soil fertility under rice-wheat cropping system

Abstract

A field study conducted for two crop cycles of five cropping systems supplied with six nutrient combinations at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi indicated that the cropping systems having a legume increased organic C content over initial level by 0.02 – 0.05%, available N by 3.5 – 14.1 kg ha^− 1, whereas the rice-wheat cropping system resulted in a reduction in organic C and available N over initial level by 0.05% and 1.5 kg ha^− 1, respectively after 2 years of study. Rice-potato-mungbean cropping system resulted in a negative balance of available P and rice-clover cropping system had a negative balance of both available P and available K content in soil and thus call for adequate P and K fertilization. Application of P and K helped in building up their content in soil; NPK + FYM showed the highest increase in organic C, available N, available P and available K content in soil. These results suggest the inclusion of a legume in a cropping system for maintaining organic C and available N in soil and adequate P and K fertilization for arresting the depletion of available P and K content in soil. Integrated nutrient management is one of the best methods for resilience of soil fertility under rice-wheat cropping system.

Keywords:

• Rice-wheat system
• Crop diversification
• Integrated nutrient management
• Organic C
• Available N
• Available P
• Available K