Abstract
The effects of surface management practices in fallow land and of legume cropping on soil water storage, soil temperature, soil physical properties, weed population and soil fertility were studied for three successive years (1991–1993) in rainfed vertisols of peninsular India. The treatments were four bare fallow management practices and a legume (cowpea) based cropping (PT + CO) system. The four fallow management practices were primary tillage coupled with basin listing (PT + BL), two shallow tillage operations (PT + ST), compartmental bunding (PT + CB) and no-tillage with a flat bed (NT + FB). In 1991 and 1993, primary tillage with two shallow tillage passes during the season (PT + ST) stored, respectively, 0.062 m 3/m 3 and 0.028 m 3/m 3 more soil moisture than traditional no-tillage flat bed (NT + FB) at the end of fallow period. The corresponding rain water storage efficiency (% of rainfall over fallow period that is retained in the soil) of the PT + ST treatment was also higher in 1991 (by 28.9%) and 1993 (by 8.9%) than the NT + FB treatment. In 1992, the effect of the legume crop residues in the PT + CO treatment resulted in more stored rainfall (0.112 m 3/m 3) than the shallow tillage (PT + ST) (0.092 m 3/m 3). Fallow management practices with tillage and cowpea cropping reduced the soil temperature fluctuations and improved physical properties like bulk density, porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity compared to the no-tillage flat bed (NT + FB). Primary tillage + shallow tillage (PT + ST) consistently reduced the rate of evaporation and weed infestation compared to the other fallow management practices. The PT + ST treatment also had 9.2, 8.9 and 6.8 mg/kg higher soil NO 3-N content over NT + FB fallow practice during 1991, 1992 and 1993, respectively. However, cowpea-cropped (PT + CO) plots had an average of 8.6 kg/ha more available N than shallow tillage (PT + ST). The mean increases of available N in PT + CO over NT + FB were 23.0 kg/ha in 1991 and 18.5 kg/ha in 1992.
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