Abstract
Rice-wheat is the predominant cropping system of fertile soils of Indian, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal falling in the alluvial Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). Management of rice residues produced after the harvest of rice crop and before sowing of the next wheat crop is a big challenge in that area. Mostly farmers burn rice residues assuming it low profile fodder and of little use. Burning of rice residues deprives the fields from many plant nutrients as they are lost during burning along with environmental pollutions and other issues. A field study was conducted for two consecutive years at the experimental area of the Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (India) to assess the impact of different rice residue management techniques and weed control treatments in wheat on soil available plant nutrients in rice-wheat cropping system. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. In main plots, five rice residue management treatments viz., no rice residue, rice residue 5 t·ha-1 (surface), rice residue 6 t·ha-1 (surface), rice residue 7 t·ha-1 (surface) and rice residue 5 t·ha-1 (incorporation) were settled and in sub plots, four weed control treatments i.e. clodinafop 60 t·ha-1, sulfosulfuron 25 t·ha-1, mesosulfuron + iodosulfuron 12 t·ha-1 and control (unweeded) were arranged. Results of the study revealed that surface application as well as incorporation of rice residues improved the organic carbon and NPK status than no rice residues. Among the residue management practices, incorporation of rice residues 5 t·ha-1 significantly improved the soil organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium than no rice residue treatment in the 0 - 15 soil layer during both the years. Same trend was observed for 15 - 30 cm soil layer but differences were less wide than 0 - 15 cm soil layer. Among the weed control treatments, organic carbon was not significantly influenced. Herbicide treated plots registered significantly higher available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium than control (unweeded) treatment in the 0 - 15 cm soil layer during both the years.
Highlights
Rice (Oryza sativa L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (RW) is the most predominant cropping system of fertile alluvial soils of Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) falling in South Asia, a niche area of this system, covering an area of about 12.3 M ha in India, 2.2 M ha in Pakistan, 0.8 M ha in Bangladesh and 0.5 M ha in Nepal [1] [2]
Soil organic carbon is the back bone of soil fertility
During first year of study, in 0 - 15 cm soil layer, soil organic carbon was significantly improved with surface application (5, 6 and 7 t∙ha−1) as well as incorporation of rice residue (5 t∙ha−1) treatments than no rice residue treatment (Table 2)
Summary
Rice (Oryza sativa L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (RW) is the most predominant cropping system of fertile alluvial soils of Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) falling in South Asia, a niche area of this system, covering an area of about 12.3 M ha in India, 2.2 M ha in Pakistan, 0.8 M ha in Bangladesh and 0.5 M ha in Nepal [1] [2]. Farmers opt to the burning practice as it is easy and swift alternative to clean the fields This burning practice leads to huge losses of precious organic matter, plant nutrients, creates environmental pollution and results in fire hazards, etc. This burning practice reduces the efficacy of herbicides as the ash produced interferes with the applied herbicides root uptake ones, which results in more infestation of weeds and nutrient mining by weeds [4]. The behavior of herbicides may vary under residue incorporation, surface retention and residue removal situations, which may alter the nutrient uptake by crop as well as by weeds and the soil availability of plant nutrients. In the light of such complexities, the present investigation was undertaken to find out the effect of rice residue management techniques and weed control treatments on soil available plant nutrients
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