Effect of tillage and crop residue management on soil physical properties

Abstract

Tillage and crop residue management play an important role on soil physical and chemical properties and eventually affects the crop productivity. Crop residue is the material which usually not taken away but rather left in the field after the crop harvesting which include leaves, straw, stubble and roots stalks. Management of soil physical properties such as bulk density, infiltration, porosity, soil organic carbon, saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil temperature, plays an important role in crop productivity. A compatible combination of tillage and crop residue management found an impactful strategy to improve the properties of soil for provision of favourable environment to crop plants. Conservational tillage practices such as zero tillage, minimum tillage and reduced tillage along with retaining crop residues on soil surface have a great advantage over conventional tillage. Incorporating crop residue with tillage practices have advantage through adding organic matter and carbon to the soil that are preconditions for the better physical, biological as well as for chemical properties. Allowance of crop residue to the soil surface reduces its bulk density and compaction. Infiltration and hydraulic conductivity also reported to be greater under no tillage than in tilled soils because of the larger number of macrospores and increased microbial activity. Crop residue incorporation into the soil also increases infiltration rate, saturated hydraulic conductivity and regulation of soil temperature. Soil organic carbon content and aggregate stability also found increased because of crop residue incorporation