Soil & Tillage Research 155 (2016) 133–148

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Soil & Tillage Research

Soil physical properties, yield trends and economics after five years of
conservation agriculture based rice-maize system in north-western
India
Vinod K. Singha,* , Yadvinder-Singhb , Brahma S. Dwivedic, Susheel K. Singha ,
Kaushik Majumdard, Mangi Lal Jate, Rajendra P. Mishraa , Meenu Rania
a
ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research, Modipuram, Meerut 250110, India
b
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004 Punjab, India
c
Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India
d
International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), South Asia Program, Gurgaon 122016, Haryana, India
e
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), NASC Complex, New Delhi 110012, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Rice-maize system (RMS) is emerging as dominant option for diversification of existing rice-wheat
Received 6 February 2015 systems in Asia due to better suitability and higher yields of maize compared to wheat after long duration
Received in revised form 11 June 2015 rice cultivars, and increasing demand of maize from poultry and fish industries. The conventional practice
Accepted 1 August 2015
of cultivation of RMS is input intensive, deteriorates soil health and is less profitable. Conservation
agriculture (CA) based management practices such as dry direct-seeded rice (DSR), zero tillage (ZT) and
Key words: residue retention may hold potential to increase yields, reduce costs and increase farmers' profits in RMS.
Rice-maize system
Therefore, replicated 5-year field study was conducted to evaluate the effects of six combinations of three
Dry direct seeded rice
Residue management
tillage and crop establishment (TCE) techniques and two residue management options on soil physical
Zero tillage properties, system productivity and economics of an irrigated RMS in north-west India. The TCE
Soil physical properties techniques consisted of transplanted puddled rice (TPR) followed by conventionally tilled maize (CTM);
Root growth CTDSR followed by CTM; and ZTDSR followed by ZTM in main plots and two residue management
System productivity options; removal of residues of both the crops (
R) and partial residue (5 t ha
1) either retained at soil
Net returns surface on ZT plots or incorporated into the soil in CT plots (+R) for both rice and maize in sub-plots.
Compared with TPR/CTM-R, soil physical parameters such as water-stable aggregates >0.2 mm were 89%
higher, and bulk density, penetrometer resistance and infiltration rate showed significant (P < 0.05)
improvement in ZTDSR/ZTM (+R) treatment. Similarly, root mass density was 6 to 49% greater in rice and
21 to 53% in maize under ZTDSR/ZTM (+R) plots compared to conventional RMS in different soil layers to
60 cm depth. The total amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) in 0–30 cm layer increased by 2.86 Mg ha
1 in
ZTDSR/ZTM (+R) over conventional practice. Grain yield of TPR was 5 –7% higher compared to CTDSR and
ZTDSR, which was attributed to increased number of grains panicle
1 and grain weight. Maize yield
under ZTDSR/ZTM was significantly higher by 4.0% and 14.2% compared to CTDSR/CTM and TPR/CTM,
respectively, due to increase in number of cobs plant
1 and grain number cob
1. Gradual improvement in
soil physical health in ZTDSR/ZTM +R system resulted in higher and stable crop productivity (17.4–17.6
kg m
3) with higher profitability in different years over conventional system. Our study demonstrates
that CA based management practices can be adopted for RMS on sandy loam or similar soils for sustaining
soil and crop productivity in South Asia.
ã 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abbreviations: RMS, rice-maize systems; CA, conservation agriculture; DSR, dry direct seeded rice; ZT, zero till; CT, conventional till; TPR, transplanted puddled rice; CTM,
conventional till maize; ZTM, zero till maize; CTDSR, conventional till dry direct seeded rice; ZTDSR, zero till dry direct seeded rice; SOC, soil organic carbon; IGP, Indo-
Gangetic plain; UGP, Upper Gangetic Plain; SPR, soil penetrometer resistance; WSA, water stable aggregate; MWD, mean weight diameter; RMD, root weight density; VCC,
variable cost of cultivation; GR, gross returns; MSP, minimum support price; NR, net returns; SREY, systems rice equivalent yield; TCE, tillage and crop establishment; RWS,
rice-wheat system; +R, residue retention/incorporation;
R, residue removal; IR, infiltration rate; STR, soil thermal regime.
* Corresponding author. Fax: +91 121 2888546.
E-mail address: vkumarsingh_01@yahoo.com (V.K. Singh).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2015.08.001
0167-1987/ ã 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.