Publications

Degradation of soil quality caused by conventional tillage practices is
a major concern for the sustainability of rice-wheat cropping systems in
South Asian region. Therefore, suitable conservation agriculture (CA)
practices are required. This study investigates the stratification and storage
of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) as affected by
eight years of different CA practices in the North-West Indo-Gangetic
Plains of India. There were four treatments: (1) conventionally tilled ricewheat
cropping system, (2) reduced-till CA-based rice-wheat-mungbean
system, (3) no-till CA-based rice-wheat-mungbean system, and (4) no-till
CA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system. The mean stratification ratio
(SR) (i.e. a ratio of the concentrations of SOC and TN in the soil surface to
those in a deeper layer) of SOC and TN for 0–5:5–10, 10–15, 15–20, 20–25
and 25–30 cm were found higher (> 2) under CA practices compared to
intensive tillage-based conventional agricultural practice (< 2). No-till CAbased
rice-wheat-mungbean system stored the highest amount of SOC
(25.32 Mg ha−1) whereas reduced till CA-based rice-wheat-mungbean
system stored highest amount of TN (3.21 Mg ha−1) at 0–30 cm soil
depth. This study shows that CA stratifies SOC and TN and helps to
enhance SOC sequestration and soil quality.