Effect of irrigation and tillage on water productivity and soil health in maize wheat sequence under zero budget natural farming systems

Abstract

newline The present study was conducted at experimental farm of Department of Organic Agriculture and newlineNatural Farming, CSK HPKV, Palampur, during the year 2018-20 in maize -wheat cropping sequence newlinewith the objectives of evaluating the effect of irrigation and tillage under zero budget natural farming newlinesystems on soil and plant water content, total water use and water productivity, plant shoot and root newlinegrowth and crop productivity and soil nutrient status, hydro-physical properties and microbial newlinebiomass. The treatments comprised of, T1: No irrigation to maize and 6 cm irrigation to wheat grown newlinewith conventional tillage and ZBNF, T2: No irrigation to maize and 4 cm irrigation to wheat grown newlinewith conventional tillage and ZBNF, T3: No irrigation to maize and 2 cm irrigation to wheat grown newlinewith conventional tillage and ZBNF, T4: No irrigation to maize and wheat grown with conventional newlinetillage and ZBNF, T5: No irrigation to maize and wheat grown with minimum tillage + lantana mulch newlineand ZBNF, T6: No irrigation to maize + soybean and 6 cm irrigation to wheat + gram gown with newlineconventional tillage grown and ZBNF, T7: No irrigation to maize + soybean and wheat + gram grown newlinewith minimum tillage + lantana mulch and ZBNF, T8: No irrigation to maize and 6 cm irrigation to newlinewheat grown with conventional tillage and organic farming and T9: No irrigation to maize and 6 cm newlineirrigation to wheat grown with conventional tillage and no manure application (Absolute control) newlinewere imposed in a randomized block design replicated four times. The results indicated that the newlinetreatments of minimum tillage with mulch with (T7) or without (T5) intercropping of soybean/ gram newlineresulted in higher soil and relative leaf water content, improved shoot and root growth and higher newlinecrop and water productivity with higher nutrient uptake in comparison to the conventional tillage and newlineno mulch under rainfed conditions. Further, the treatments with 6 cm irrigation applied (T1, T6, T8) newlinein wheat resulted in higher soil and relative leaf water content in comparison to the treatments of newlineminimum tillage with mulch (T5 and T7). The treatments of minimum tillage with mulch (T5 and T7) newlineresulted in increase in organic carbon, improvement in hydro-physical properties and increased newlinemicrobial count in comparison to the conventional tillage and no mulch. The study concluded that the newlinetreatments of minimum tillage with mulch with or without intercropping of soybean/ gram resulted in newlinehigher crop and water productivity compared to conventional tillage with no mulch under ZBNF newlinesystems.