Author(s):

Tarun Kumar Kevat, Tapas Chowdhury, MC Bhambri, SB Gupta, Ravindra Soni and Dipika

Abstract: An investigation was carried out at Department of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur, Chhattisgarh during the year 2015-16 in an Inceptisol field for two consequtive years with three crops viz. rice wheat and cow pea in kharif, rabi and summer season, respectively to evaluate the effect of adoption of conservation agriculture practice on soil phyico-chemical properties and organic matter content. The experiment consisted of five tillage practices which were applied in main plot with and without residue under two different crop establishment methods i.e. transplanting and direct seeding. Two different weed management methods were also tested in combination with tillage treatments compared with weedy check. Results indicated that tillage systems namely conventional tillage and zero tillage had no significant effect on soil pH and EC at end of the two-year experiment. Similarly, interaction effects of tillage management x weed management did not have significant effect on soil pH and EC value. Soil organic carbon (SOC) was recorded higher at surface layer (0-5 cm) at end of two-year experiment and its concentration decreased with increasing depth. Among different tillage management systems evaluated, zero tillage (ZT) found significantly higher SOC compared to conventional tillage (CT) at surface layer (0-5 cm) and 10-15 cm soil depth. Overall, tillage systems had significant effect on SOC at end of two-year experiment regardless of soil depths. However, tillage management x weed management did not have significant effect on SOC. At the completion of experiment, ZT with and without residue had higher organic carbon (SOC) than CT.

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