Effect of tillage and residue management on productivity of soybean and physico-chemical properties of soil in soybean–wheat cropping system

A microplot experiment was conducted in soybean–wheat cropping system at New Delhi during 2010-11 and 2011-12 to study the effect of continuous or cyclic tillage, viz., conventional tillage (CT) and zero-tillage (ZT) and residue management of either soybean (SR) and/or wheat (WR) on yield performance and soil physico-chemical properties. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with two replications in microplots of size 4×1.4 m. Plant height of soybean was influenced due to tillage and residue management at different growth stages. All yield attributes of soybean were showed variation due to treatments. The harmful effects of ZT on yield attributes could be overcome with residue application on soil surface. The results indicated that tillage and residue management to the immediate crop of soybean was more important for increasing grain yield (26%) and stover production (32%) of soybean and the residual effect of residue to previous soybean was relatively small. The change in organic C was relatively small even with regular addition of crop residues. There was no change in available nutrients (N, P and K) due to tillage and residue management treatments. The variation in soil physical properties was also small and a significant improvement may be expected over several years of continuous application of crop residue and ZT. Keywords: Conventional tillage; Residue management; Soybean; Wheat; Zero tillage.