Delineating soil moisture dynamics as affected by tillage in wheat, Rice and establishment methods of rice during intervening period
Article Main
Abstract
Intervening cropping period perhaps the most ignored period, which could be exploited for cultivating the intervening crops which further add to the soil, crop and water productivity and finally livelihood of the farmers of the region. The present investigation was carried out after rice- 2014, to monitor the residual effect of different tillage (wheat), establishment methods and tillage (rice) on the fluctuating behaviour of the soil moisture during intervening period. Our findings suggested that CTW-DSRZT (conventionally tilled wheat and zero till direct seeded rice) plots conserved more moisture than ZTW-DSRZT (zero till wheat and zero till direct seeded rice) plots an exception of CTWDSRCT plots which were almost equally effective in conserving the soil moisture. On an average, soil matric tension (SMT) was reported to be 36% higher in CTWDSRZT than CTWDSRP plots at 10cm soil surface. Further, ZTW-DSRZT plots on an average dried 8% faster than ZTW-DSRP plots. At 20cm, DSRZT plots dried 3% faster than its allied plots while at 30cm depth, in DSRP plots, SMT values increased 12% and 11% higher under CTW block and ZTW blocks, respectively than its allied plots. SMT readings in all the ZTW plots on an average increased at much more faster rates (24%) than CTW plots. The ZT plots had 1.4% higher water depths than the CT plots. Evaporation losses pragmatic to be higher (17.2% and 7.3%) in ZTW-DSRZT plots as compared to the ZTW-DSRCT and CTW-DSRCT plots which might improve declining crops and water productivity in the region.
Article Details
Article Details
Direct seeded rice, Intervening period, Mechanically transplanted rice, Soil moisture, Zero tilled wheat
Beff, L., Unther, T. G. B., Vandoorne, C.V. and Javaux, M. (2013). Three-dimensional monitoring of soil water content in a maize field using Electrical Resistivity Tomography. Hydrology Earth System Sci., 17: 595–609.
Benjamin, J. G. (1993). Tillage effects on near-surface soil hydraulic properties. Soil Till Res., 26 (4): 277-288.
Bhatt, R. and Khera, K.L. (2006) Effect of tillage and mode of straw mulch application on soil erosion in the submontaneous tract of Punjab, India. Soil Till Res., 88:107-115.
Bhatt, R. and Kukal, S.S. (2014). Moisture retention trends during the intervening period of differently established rice-wheat cropping pattern in sandy loam soil. Inter J. Farm Sci., 4(2): 7-14.
Datiri, B.S. and Lowery, B. (1991). Effects of conservation tillage on hydraulic properties of a Griswold silt loam soil. Soil Till Res., 21(3-4): 257-271.
Du, Z., Ren, T., Huc, C. and Zhang, Q. (2015). Transition from intensive tillage to no-till enhances carbon sequestration in microaggregates of surface soil in the North China Plain. Soil Till Res., 146: 26–31.
Garr´e, S., Javaux, M., Vanderborght, J., Pag`es, L. and Vereecken, H. (2011). Three-dimensional electrical resistivity tomography to monitor root zone water dynamics. Vadose Zone J., 10: 412–424.
Guan, D., Zhang, Y., Mahdi, M., Kaisi, A., Wang, Q., Zhang, M. and Li, Z. (2015). Tillage practices effect on root distribution and water use efficiency of winter wheat under rain-fed condition in the North China Plain. Soil Till Res., 146: 286–295.
Hupet, F. and Vanclooster, M. (2005). Micro-variability of hydrological processes at the maize row scale: implications for soil water content measurements and evapo-transpiration estimates. J Hydro., 303: 247–270.
Javaux, M., Schroder, T., Vanderborght, J. and Vereecken, H. (2008). Use of a three-dimensional detailed modeling approach for predicting root water uptake. Vadose Zone J., 7: 1079–1088.
Kukal, S.S. and Sidhu, A.S. (2004). Percolation losses of water in relation to pre-puddling tillage and puddling intensity in a puddled sandy loam rice (Oryza sativa) field. Soil Till Res., 78 (1): 1-8.
Ladha, J.K., Hill, J.E., Duxbury, J.M., Gupta, R.K. and Buresh, R. J. (2003b). Improving the productivity and sustainability of rice-wheat systems: issues and impacts. ASA Spec. Publ. 65. ASA, CSSA and SSA, Madison, WI, pp. 1–231.
Nielsen, D.C., Unger, P. and Miller, P. R. (2005). Efficient water use in dryland cropping systems in the Great Plains. Agronomy J., 97: 364–372.
Singh, B., Eberbach, P.L. and Humphreys, E. (2014). Simulation of the evaporation of soil water beneath a wheat crop canopy. Agri Water Manag., 135: 19-26.
Singh, B., Humphreys, E., Eberbach, P.L., Katupitiya, A., Singh, Y. and Kukal, S.S. (2011). Growth, yield and water productivity of zero till wheat as affected by rice straw mulch and irrigation schedule. Field Crop Res., 121: 209–225.
Singh, M., Bhullar, M. S. and Chauhan, B.S. (2014). The critical period for weed control in dry-seeded rice. Crop Protec., 66: 80-85.
Singh, M., Bhullar, M. S. and Chauhan, B.S. (2015) Influence of tillage, cover cropping, and herbicides on weeds and productivity of dry direct seeded rice. Soil Till Res., 147: 39–49.
Singh, M., Bhullar, M. S. and Chauhan, B.S. (2015). Seed bank dynamics and emergence pattern of weeds as affected by tillage systems in dry direct-seeded rice. Crop Prot., 67: 168-177.
Zheng, L., Wu, W., Wei, W. and Hu, K. (2015). Effects of straw return and regional factors on spatio-temporal variability of soil organic matter in a high-yielding area of northern China. Soil Till Res., 145: 78–86.
This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) © Author (s)
