Soil organic carbon, carbon sequestration, soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, and soil enzymatic activity as influenced by conservation agriculture in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) + soybean (Gycine max) intercropping system

B T NAVEEN KUMAR; H B BABALAD

doi:10.56093/ijas.v88i7.81543

Authors

B T NAVEEN KUMAR Ph D Scholar, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka 580 005
H B BABALAD Professor and Principle Investigator, Project on Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Production, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka 580 005

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijas.v88i7.81543

Keywords:

Carbon sequestration, Conservation agriculture, Enzymatic activity, No tillage, Reduced tillage, Soil microbial carbon and nitrogen, Soil organic carbon

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted during the year 2014-15 and 2015-16 at MARS, Dharwad, Karnataka to study the influence of conservation agriculture (CA) practices on soil health in a pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp]+ soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] intercropping system. The experiment consisted of 6 tillage systems [CT₁: No tillage with broad bed and furrow (BBF) and crop residue retained on the surface, CT₂: Reduced tillage with BBF and incorporation of crop residue, CT₃: No tillage with flatbed and crop residue retained on the surface, CT₄: reduced tillage with flatbed and incorporation of crop residue, CT₅: Conventional tillage with incorporation of crop residue and CT₆: Conventional tillage without crop residue]. The experiment was laid out in strip block design and replicated thrice. The CA treatments significantly improves soil health. The pooled data revealed that, all the CA systems i.e. CT₁, CT₂, CT₃ and CT₄ recorded significantly higher soil organic carbon at 0-15 cm depth (0.62, 0.64, 0.60 ad 0.62%, respectively) and 15-30 cm depth (0.56, 0.56, 0.54 and 0.55 %, respectively), higher soil carbon sequestration (15.1, 15.4, 14.6 and 14.7 t/ha, respectively) over conventional till systems. However, soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were significantly higher in all the CA systems. While, significantly higher soil urease activity (11.76, 11.86, 11.10 and 11.44 Î¼g NH4-N/g/day), dehydrogenase activity (32.29, 32.29, 31.14 and 31.55 Î¼g TPF/g/day) and total phosphatase activity (173.21, 174.55, 170.09 and 173.21 Î¼g PNP/g/hr) were recorded in CT₁, CT₂, CT₃ and CT₄ over CT₅ and CT₆.

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