Pedosphere 28(6): 952--963, 2018
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2018 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
Long-term conservation agriculture and intensified cropping systems: Effects on growth, yield, water, and energy-use efficiency of maize in northwestern India |
Chiter M. PARIHAR1, Malu R. YADAV2, Shankar L. JAT1 , Aditya K. SINGH1, Bhupender KUMAR1, Vijay POONIYA2, Sanatan PRADHAN2, Rakesh K. VERMA2, Mangi L. JAT3, Raj K. JAT4, Muli D. PARIHAR5, Hari S. NAYAK2, Yashpal S. SAHARAWAT6 |
1Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Institute of Maize Research, New Delhi 110012(India) 2Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012(India) 3International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, New Delhi 110012(India) 4Borlaug Institute for South Asia, Samastipur 848125(India) 5Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 125004(India) 6International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Kabul 11082010(Afghanistan) |
ABSTRACT |
Conservation agriculture (CA)-based best-bet crop management practices may increase crop and water productivity, while conserving and sustaining natural resources. We evaluated the performance of rainy season maize during 2014 under an ongoing long-term trial (established in 2008) with three tillage practices, i.e., permanent bed (PB), zero tillage (ZT), and conventional tillage (CT) as main plots, and four intensified maize-based cropping systems, i.e., maize-wheat-mungbean, maize-chickpea-Sesbania (MCS), maizemustard-mungbean, and maize-maize-Sesbania) as subplot treatments. In the seventh rainy season of the experiment, maize growth parameters, yield attributes, yield, and water- and energy-use efficiency were highest at fixed plots under ZT. Maize growth parameters were significantly (P < 0.05) superior under ZT and PB compared with CT. Maize yield attributes, including cobs per m2 (7.8), cob length (0.183 m), grain rows per cob (13.8), and grains per row (35.6), were significantly higher under ZT than CT; however, no significant effect of cropping systems was found on maize growth and yield attributes. Zero tillage exhibited the highest maize productivity (4 589 kg ha-1). However, among the cropping systems, MCS exhibited the highest maize productivity (4 582 kg ha-1). In maize, water use was reduced by 80.2-120.9 mm ha-1 under ZT and PB compared with CT, which ultimately enhanced the economic water-use efficiency by 42.0% and 36.6%, respectively. The ZT and PB showed a 3.5%-31.8% increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) at different soil depths (0-0.45 m), and a 32.3%-39.9% increase in energy productivity compared with CT. Overall, our results showed that CA-based ZT and PB practices coupled with diversified maize-based cropping systems effectively enhanced maize yield and SOC, as well as water- and energy-use efficiency, in northwestern India. |
Key Words: conventional tillage,economic water-use efficiency,permanent bed,rainy season,soil organic carbon,zero tillage |
Citation: Parihar C M, Yadav M R, Jat S L, Singh A K, Kumar B, Pooniya V, Pradhan S, Verma R K, Jat M L, Jat R K, Parihar M D, Nayak H S, Saharawat Y S. 2018. Long-term conservation agriculture and intensified cropping systems:Effects on growth, yield, water, and energy-use efficiency of maize in northwestern India. Pedosphere. 28(6):952-963. |
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