Unveiling Productivity Dynamics: A Comparative Study of Conservation vs. Conventional Tillage Practices in Wheat-Mungbean-T. Aman Rice Cropping Systems

Abstract

Intensive tillage for crop production has a negative impact on soil organic matter and soil quality, resulting in reduced crop yields. Conservation agriculture (CA) practices, which improve soil fertility and crop productivity through minimal soil disturbance, crop residue retention, and crop diversification, can solve these issues, especially in intensive rice-based rotations. We hypothesized that increased residue retention and decreased soil disturbance may lead to higher productivity and profitability for individual crops while maintaining soil fertility. An experiment was conducted to study the productivity and soil fertility of intensified rice-wheat (RW) systems by adding a third pre-rice crop of mungbean with five treatments: (T1) strip planting + 30% crop residue; (T2) power tiller-operated seeder (PTOS) + 30% crop residue; (T3) zero planting + 30% crop residue; (T4) bed planting + 30% crop residue; and (T5) conventional tillage (CT) practices. In conservation agriculture-based practices, the average yield of two years shows that the wheat yield was 9 to 14.7%, the mungbean yield was 11.7 to 19%, the rice yield was equal, and the REY yield was 6.3 to 9.9% higher than conventional practices. Again, from the economic point of view, the CA method was more profitable than the conventional method. System productivity and fertility were evaluated under five levels of tillage options (strip, PTOS, zero, raised bed, and conventional tillage practice) in an RW-Mungbean cropping pattern. The results indicated that keeping standing 30% of crop residue in the field with minimum disturbance of soil had a significant contribution to grain yield of the wheat-mungbean-rice sequence compared to the conventional practice of well-tilling without crop residue retention.