Soil Water Dynamics and Crop Productivity of Wheat in Rice-Wheat System under Different Establishment Methods in Typic Ustochrept

Abstract

The investigation entitled “Soil Water Dynamics and Crop Productivity of Wheat in Rice-Wheat System under Different Establishment Methods in Typic Ustochrept” was carried out at the Crop Research Centre of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut (U.P.), during Rabi season of 2018-19.The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with three replication and twelve tillage treatments namely T1-Zero tillage residue retention, T2-Zero tillage without residue, T3-Reduce tillage residue retention, T4-Reduce tillage with residue, T5-Roto till residue retention, T6-Roto till without residue, T7-Narrow raised bed residue retention,T8-Narrow raised bed without residue,T9-Wide raised bed residue retention, T10-Wide raised beds without residue, T11-Conventional tillage residue incorporation and T12-Conventional tillage and one variety DBW-90 were tested. The soil of experimental field was sandy loam with low in organic carbon (0.44 %), available nitrogen and medium in available phosphorus and potassium. The growth parameters of wheat viz., plant height, number of tillers m-2, dry matter accumulation (g m-2), leaf area index, crop growth rate (g m-2 day-1), relative growth rate (g g-1day-1) and net assimilation rate (g m-2 day-1) were significantly higher under wide raised bed residue retention (T9) except narrow raised bed residue retention (T7) and conventional tillage residue incorporation (T11) compared to other treatments. The yield attributes viz., productive tillers (m-2), grains spike-1, spike length (cm) and test weight were higher in treatmentsT9, T7, and T11, respectively. The improvement in grain yield with the tune of 32.09, 28.14 and 25.49 per cent was under treatmentsT9, T7 and T11 as compared to T12. The WP was remarkably low in conventional tillage (T12) than FIRB, zero and reduced tillage crop establishment method. Reduce in soil water losses by evaporation and increase transpiration early in the season, hence improved yield and water use efficiency of wheat with T1 and water productivity with T9 over rest of the treatments. Increase in water productivity under FIRB based on the fact that the proportionate increases in grain yield with lesser number of irrigation. Thus the higher bulk density was recorded from top 0-10 cm depth i.e. 51.7 per cent, whereas the contribution of bulk density to 10-20 and 20-30 cm soil layers was about 24.8 and 23.7 per cent. It was observed that treatment T7 recorded lower bulk density and more contribution was from lower layer 52.10 per cent and less from top layer 23.8 and 24.1 per cent. Wheat sown with wide bed without residue (T10) resulted 19.57 % more total nitrogen while wide bed residue retention (T9) resulted 31.22 and 27.33 % more total phosphorus and potassium uptake over rest of the treatment. The cost of cultivation of wheat crop increases with increase in number of tillage. The cost of cultivation was highest in narrow raised beds residue retention (T7) followed by conventional tillage residue incorporation (T11) and it was lowest in zero tillage without residue (T2). The maximum net profit of Rs.72260 ha-1 was recorded with wide raised bed residue retention (T9) and B:C ratio 3.41 with 3 zero tillage without residue (T2) however, the lowest gross income, net profit and B: C ratio were received from conventional tillage (T12).