Cropping system-based fertilizer strategies for crop productivity and soil health under minimum tillage in grey terrace soil

Abstract

A cropping system that is based on three or four crops is currently a widely favored option for augmenting crop productivity to address the escalating global food demand. However, the improper fertilizer management and undue tillage adversely impacts both the productivity of crops and the fertility of the soil. A research investigation was conducted on tillage and nutrient management within the mustard-mungbean-Transplanting aus (T.aus)-Transplanting aman (T.aman) cropping system to examine the impact of fertilizer packages and tillage techniques on the overall productivity of cropping systems, as well as the condition of the soil in grey terrace soil. The research included tillage techniques viz; minimum tillage (MT), conventional tillage (CT) and deep tillage (DT); while nutrient management; NM ₁: 100 % STB (Soil test based) following FRG (Fertilizer Recommendation Guide-2018), all from chemical fertilizer, NM ₂: 125 % of STB following FRG- 2018, all from chemical fertilizer, NM ₃: 100 % STB (80 % from chemical fertilizers and 20 % from cowdung), and NM ₄: Native fertility (no fertilization). A total of twelve treatments replicated three times following the factorial completely randomized design for three consecutive seasonal years (2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21). MT outperformed DT and CT in terms of crop yield, rice equivalent yield (REY), system productivity (SP), and production efficiency (PE). Moreover, NM ₃ exhibited enhanced performance in terms of agricultural productivity measures. Field capacity (FC), soil organic matter (OM), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), and soil nutrients (N, P, K, S, Zn and B) observed an enhancement as a result of the implementation of tillage MT and nutrition package NM ₃. The investigation indicates that implementing minimum tillage (MT) coupled with an integrated plant nutrition system package (NM3) can assist in the improvement of soil and the enhancement of crop productivity.