Long-Term Impact of the Continuous Use of Organic Manures on Crop and Soil Productivity under Maize–Potato–Onion Cropping Systems

Sohan Singh Walia, Tamanpreet Kaur, Rajeev Kumar Gupta (), Manzer H. Siddiqui and Md Atikur Rahman
Additional contact information
Sohan Singh Walia: School of Organic Farming, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, India
Tamanpreet Kaur: School of Organic Farming, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, India
Rajeev Kumar Gupta: Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, India
Manzer H. Siddiqui: Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Md Atikur Rahman: Grassland & Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Cheonan 31000, Republic of Korea

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: The scarcity of fertilizers and their rising costs are significant barriers to crop production, as the current agricultural situation in India has shown. In maize–potato–onion cropping systems, the impact of various organic treatments on crop yields and soil parameters has shown that organic treatments increased maize, potato and onion yields compared to chemical treatment (recommended dose of fertilizers) alone. Treatments with applications of different organic sources, each equivalent to 1/3 of the recommended N, along with intercropping of soybeans in maize, radishes in potatoes and coriander in onions, gave the highest yield of maize crops, and significant positive yield trends were observed in four treatments (T1, T2, T4 and T6). Interestingly, all treatments showed a positive effect on potato and onion yields, clearly summarizing potatoes and onions as being more stable crops than maize. Further, the best soil characteristics, viz., bulk density and soil resistance under organic treatment, were lower than those found in integrated and chemical treatments. In contrast, the soil’s water-holding capacity, stable aggregate and infiltration rate followed a reverse trend. The treatment (T3), in which soybeans were grown as an inter-row crop in maize, radishes in potatoes and coriander in onions, showed the highest energy-use efficiency, energy output efficiency and energy productivity.

Keywords: yield trends; bulk density; soil resistance; water stable aggregate; water infiltration rate; organic carbon; quality parameters; energy productivity; energy output efficiency; energy-use efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/10/8254/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/10/8254/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:10:p:8254-:d:1150487

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().