Long term impact of different cropping systems on soil quality under silty loam soils of Indo-Gangetic plains of India

Abstract

In a multi-enterprise agriculture model, six different cropping systems have been evaluated at research farm of CSSRI Karnal for nutrient availability in surface soil. All the cropping systems left tremendous effect on soil quality. Among the different cropping systems, sorghum-berseem maintained lowest soil pH (8.14) followed by cowpea-cauliflower-potato cropping system (8.35). Sorghum-berseem cropping system was significantly build-up of soil fertility in terms of available nitrogen, (221.1kg/ha) and soil organic carbon (0.59%) as compared to other cropping systems. However, phosphorus (59.80 kg/ha) availability was higher in vegetable system followed by wheat-green gram cropping systems (48.85 kg/ha) than the other cropping systems. Vegetable system of multi-enterprise agriculture model showed more availability of Ca (3.20 me/L), Mg (2.63 me/L) and S (11.71 me/L) than other cropping systems. Higher amount of Fe (8.44 mg/kg) was observed in maize-wheat-green gram cropping system, whereas higher Mn (6.37 mg/kg) was noticed in sorghum-berseem fodder system than the other cropping system. Zn and Cu availability was relatively higher in vegetable system. Under prevailing climatic conditions of Karnal, sorghum-berseem fodder system was found to be the best with respect to soil quality and ready adaptability by the farmers as it was not much changed by climatic variability over the last 6 years. Vegetable system and fruits + vegetable were more or less similar in accelerating the availability of nutrients. Thus, leguminous crop (green gram) in any cropping system helped in improving the soil health, which is a good indicator of soil productivity.