Effect of Tillage on Soil Moisture and Energy Conservation in Production ofToriain an Inceptisol of Assam

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with four treatments viz. T1: Minimum tillage (harrowing once by tractor drawn harrow), T2: Harrowing twice by tractor drawn harrow, T3: T2 + pulverization once by tractor drawn rotavator and T4: Farmers’ practice (five times ploughing by country plough + one planking). The soil moisture was reduced during the seasons in the order of T4 > T3 > T2 > T1. The highest seed yield of toria was recorded when land preparation was done by tractor drawn harrow twice followed by pulverization by tractor drawn rotavator once (T3) which remained significantly superior to all other tillage methods. However, the difference in yield was at par between minimum tillage (T1) and farmers’ practice (T4). The average seed yield of toria ranged from 4.19 q/ha in minimum tillage to 7.46 q/ha in T3 i.e harrowing twice by tractor drawn harrow followed by pulverization once by tractor drawn rotavator. A similar trend was observed with respect to B-C ratio which varied from 2.28 to 3.42 for the same treatments. Results revealed that treatment T3 recorded the highest energy output (18633 MJ/ha) and T2 recorded the highest output-input energy ratio (3.46 MJ/MJ). Therefore, in terms of energy coversion T2 (Two harrowing by tractor drawn harrow) was considered the best treatment which also recorded better moisture conservation and B-C ratio as compared to farmers’ practice.