Conservation Agricultural Practices Impact on Soil Organic Carbon, Soil Aggregation and Greenhouse Gas Emission in a Vertisol

Somasundaram Jayaraman, Meenakshi Sahu, Nishant K. Sinha, Monoranjan Mohanty, Ranjeet S. Chaudhary, Brijesh Yadav, Lalit K. Srivastava, Kuntal M. Hati, Ashok K. Patra and Ram C. Dalal
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Somasundaram Jayaraman: ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Berasia Road, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462038, India
Meenakshi Sahu: ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Berasia Road, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462038, India
Nishant K. Sinha: ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Berasia Road, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462038, India
Monoranjan Mohanty: ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Berasia Road, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462038, India
Ranjeet S. Chaudhary: ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Berasia Road, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462038, India
Brijesh Yadav: ICAR–Directorate of Mushroom Research, Chambaghat, Solan 173213, India
Lalit K. Srivastava: Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Raipur 492012, India
Kuntal M. Hati: ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Berasia Road, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462038, India
Ashok K. Patra: ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Berasia Road, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462038, India
Ram C. Dalal: School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Conservation agriculture (CA), comprising of minimum soil disturbance and crop residue retention (>30%), with a diversified cropping system, has become increasingly popular around the world. It is recognized as a sustainable practice to improve soil health by augmenting key soil properties. However, scanty information exists about the effect of CA practices on soil organic carbon (SOC), aggregation and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in a vertisol. Thus, this study investigated the effect of CA practices on SOC, soil aggregation and GHG emission under soybean-wheat and maize-chickpea cropping systems in a vertisol in Central India. Treatment consisted of three different tillage practices, being conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT), and no tillage (NT) under four cropping systems viz., Soybean–Wheat, Soybean + Pigeon pea (2:1), Maize–Chickpea and Maize + Pigeon pea (1:1). Regardless of cropping system, the soil under NT and RT exhibited better aggregation (20.77 to 25.97% increase), and SOC (12.9 to 19.4% increase) compared to the CT practice in surface layers. The aggregate-associated C concentration increased with aggregate size, and it was highest with large macroaggregates and lowest with silt and clay fractions across different tillage and cropping systems. Higher SOC stock was recorded under NT (4.22 ± 0.133 Mg C/ha) compared to RT (3.84 ± 0.123 Mg C/ha) and CT (3.65 ± 0.04 Mg C/ha) practices at 0 to 5 cm depth. Thus, the adoption of CA practices reduced CO 2 emissions, while also contributing to increases in SOC as well as improvement in soil structure.

Keywords: conservation tillage; no-tillage; reduced tillage; greenhouse gas emissions; soil organic carbon; carbon sequestration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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