Influence of tillage practices and nutrient application rates on soil properties in a rice-mustard-black gram cropping system

Abstract

An investigation entitled “Influence of Tillage Practices and Nutrient Application Rates on Soil Properties in a Rice-Mustard-Black Gram Cropping System” was conducted at Experimental Field Division of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, SKUAST-Jammu, during the two successive years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The treatment comprises of four levels of tillage viz., T1 (Zero tillage), T2 (Conventional tillage), T3 (Zero tillage + residue addition) and T4 (Conventional tillage + residue addition) and five levels of fertilizer doses i.e. F1 (100% RDF), F2 (100% RDF + microbial consortia), F3 (100% RDF + 25% starter dose of N), F5 (75% RDF + FYM @ 5t ha-1) and F5 (75% RDF + Microbial consortia) constituting 20 treatment combinations replicated thrice in factorial randomized block design. Results indicated that in case of rice crop maximum available nitrogen and soil porosity percentage was recorded highest under ZT+RA (Zero tillage + residue addition), while bulk density was recorded highest under CT (Conventional tillage). However, among nutrient doses highest available nitrogen was recorded under F3 nutrient dose, highest porosity percentage under F4 nutrient dose and highest bulk density under F1 and F3 nutrient dose.