Management of tillage and crop residue under maize for enhancing soil resilience to climate change

Abstract

Development of appropriate coping strategies to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate variability should be a part of research activity in dryland agriculture. Therefore, a field study was established in semi-arid Alfisols to study the effect of conservation tillage practices, which influences the soil - water - plant ecosystem, thereby affecting crop yield. Surface residue cover, soil moisture, bulk density and penetration resistance were measured at different depths in the study composed of three tillage practices in combination with in-situ residue recycling. Tillage methods in combination with residue management significantly influenced biomass and grain yield with maize stalk slashing and spreading + tillage twice with offset disc harrow giving highest average stover and grain yield of 3726 and 2402 kg ha-1 respectively. Reduced till or No till slightly recorded more soil moisture than that of conventional tillage. Differences in soil bulk density between tillage practices were temporally dependent and were largest at the depth of 0-100 mm immediately after tillage events. In crop stubbles + No till practice plots, bulk density mean yearly values were highest, 1.53 and 1.6 g cm-3 at 0-100 mm and 100-200 mm depths. The penetration resistance was higher in No-till practice than that under conventional tillage at 0 - 25 cm depth. It is concluded that, under semi-arid Alfisols, reduced tillage, even in combination with in-situ crop residue management, gives small yield benefits in the short run. Crop residue mulching helped significantly to conserve soil and water from off-season rainfall events. If adopted on long term basis, the practice could favourably improve other soil physical properties also. Therefore, reduced till and zero tillage practices in conjunction with biomass recycling could be of high significance in making the soil resilient towards climate variability.