Improvement of Soil Health and System Productivity through Crop Diversification and Residue Incorporation under Jute-Based Different Cropping Systems

Crop diversity through residue incorporation is the most important method for sustaining soil health. A field study was conducted over five consecutive years (2012-2017) to see the impact of residue incorporartions in Inceptisol of eastern India. The main plot treatments had five cropping systems (CS), namely, fallow-rice-rice (FRR), jute-rice-wheat (JRW), jute-rice-baby corn (JRBc), jute-rice-vegetable pea (JRGp), jute-rice-mustard-mungbean/green gram (JRMMu), which cinsisted of four sub-plots with varied nutrient and crop residue management (NCRM) levels, namely crops with no residue +75% of the recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) (F1R0), crops with the residue of the previous crops +75% RDF (F1R1), crops with no resiude +100% RDF (F2R0), and crops with residue +100% RDF (F2R1). The highest system productivity was obtained for JRBc (15.3 Mg.ha(-1)), followed by JRGp (8.81 Mg.ha(-1)) and JRMMu (7.61 Mg.ha(-1)); however, the highest sustainability index was found with the JRGp cropping system (0.88), followed by JRMMu (0.82). Among the NCRMs, the highest productivity (8.78 Mg.ha(-1)) and sustainability index (0.83) were recorded in F2R1. Five soil parameters, namely, bulk density, available K, urease activity, dehydrogenase activity, and soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), were used in the minimum data-set (MDS) for the calculation of the soil quality index (SQI). The best attainment of SQI was found in the JRGp system (0.63), closely followed by the JRMMu (0.61) cropping system.

Automated summary

Crop diversity through residue incorporation is essential for sustaining soil health. A field study conducted in Inceptisol of eastern India showed that cropping systems like jute-rice-vegetable pea and jute-rice-mustard-mungbean/green gram can achieve high productivity and sustainability index.