Long Term Incorporation of Rice Straw along with Inorganic Fertilization to Ameliorate Enzymatic Activities and Soil Properties in Wheat Field

Abstract

Agricultural sustainability is essential for maintaining soil health and long term experiments provide more information about any changes in soil parameters and processes. Soil enzymes and soil physico-chemical properties immediately get altered even with slight change in the soil quality. The research was done to find the impact of long term amendment of different doses of rice straw and inorganic fertilizer at different time intervals in wheat field. It was observed that maximum dehydrogenase activity was observed to be 27.40 µg TPF.hr-1.g-1soil at 45 days after sowing (DAS). Similarly, maximum urease and alkaline phosphatase activity was observed at 45 DAS and recorded to be 330.67 µg urea.hr-1.g-1 and 15.882 µg pNP.hr-1.g-1. The treatment having 7.5T RS.ha-1 + 120 kg N.ha-1 showed higher enzymatic activity as compared to other treatments. The soil physico-chemical properties were also determined and a minor change in soil pH and electrical conductivity was observed. The organic carbon content (0.36%) was altered with increased number of days and higher dose of rice straw. The maximum available nutrients viz. nitrogen in soil was observed to be 136.9 kg.ha-1, phosphorous as 29.94 kg.ha-1 and potassium as 120.58 kg.ha-1 at 45 DAS with treatment having 10 T.ha-1 rice straw and 150 kgN.ha-1. The study revealed that long term experiment exhibited significant improvement with integrated amendment of rice straw and inorganic fertilization in soil enzymatic activities and physico-chemical properties of soil.