Improving soil microbiology under rice-wheat crop rotation in Indo-Gangetic Plains by optimized resource management

Abstract

The resource-intensive agriculture involving use of chemical fertilizers, irrigation, and tillage practices is a major cause of soil, water, and air pollution. This study was conducted to determine whether integrateduseofnutrient,water,andtillage(reduced)canbe manipulated to improve the population of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (Azotobacter, Bacillus, and Pseudomonas) to enhance soil fertility and yield. The study was conducted in the Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) region of India, where resource-intensive agriculture is practiced. Various combinations of chemical (urea) and organic fertilizers (farmyard manure (FYM), biofertilizer, and green manure) were used onreplicated fieldplotsfor all theexperiments.Theeffectofintegrated resource management (IRM) on activities of Azotobacter,Bacillus,andPseudomonasanditsrelation to the yields of rice and wheat crops in subtropical soils of IGP region were also observed. The increased population of all the three microbes, namely, Azotobacter (5.01–7.74 %), Bacillus (3.37–6.79 %), and Pseudomonas (5.21–7.09 %), was observed due to improvedstructureandincreasedorganicmatterinthesoil. Similarly, kernel number and 1000 kernel weight were found increased with sole organic N source, three irrigations,andconservationtillage.Thus,itwasfoundthat the IRM practices affect the environment positively by increasingthepopulationofbeneficialsoilmicrobesand crop yield as compared to high-input agriculture (conventional practices).