Long-Term Consequences of Tillage and Residue Management on the Performance of Rice-Wheat Cropping System in Indo-Gangetic Plains of India

ABSTRACT

A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of tillage and residue management practices on grain yield, economics, and soil fertility in a RWCS. The results inferred that wheat sown with happy seeder (full residue retained)-ZWW recorded 11.5% higher grain yield as compared to zero tillage sowing (residue removed)-ZWWO and 10.9% higher than farmer’s practice (TRWO-CWWO, residue removed and sowing with seed cum fertilizer drill after preparatory tillage). Retention or incorporation of paddy residues produced 16.0% higher grain yield than its removal or burning simultaneously improving soil health. Puddled transplanted rice (PTR) with or without wheat stubble recorded a 33.2% significantly higher yield than zero tillage direct seeded rice (ZTDSR) without wheat stubble. System productivity in TRW-ZWW treatment was 15 and 6.8% higher than zero residue treatments and only rice residue retained/incorporated treatments, respectively, and resulted in additional returns of Rs. 28,871 ha⁻¹ as compared with conventional RWCS. There was a significant (p < .05) improvement in soil organic carbon in residue retained/incorporated plots.

KEYWORDS:

• rice-wheat cropping system
• Residue management
• tillage
• zero tillage

Disclosure statement

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

Authorship contribution statement

Conceptualization of research work and designing of experiments (JSK, ASS); Execution of field and data collection (ASS, JSK, JK); Analysis of data and interpretation (ASS, JK); Preparation of manuscript (ASS, JSK).