Effect of tillage practices on soil properties under rice-wheat cropping system

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted for consecutive four years at the Crop Research Center of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India, to evaluate the effect of different tillage practices on soil health and crop productivity of wheat under rice wheat cropping system. Five different tillage practices, namely conventional tillage (CT), Conservational tillage I (CMB), Conservational tillage II (CSD), Zero till sowing (ZT) and strip till sowing (ST) were implemented for testing. Mean data of four years showed that the soil health in terms of bulk density, organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus and potash were superior in ZT than in other tillage practices. ZT practice retained higher numbers of phytopathogenic and non phytogenic fungi and nematodes than other tillage practices.