Tillage, Crop Establishment, and Weed Management for Improving Productivity, Nutrient Uptake, and Soil Physico-chemical Properties in Soybean-wheat Cropping System

The effect of tillage (conventional and zero tillage), crop establishment (raised-bed and flat-bed), and weed management practices (herbicide alone and integrated approach) was studied on productivity, profitability, nutrient uptake and physico-chemical properties of soil in soybean–wheat cropping system, at New Delhi during 2010–2012. Sixteen treatment combinations consisting of four tillage and crop establishment practices, viz . Conventional Tillage–raised-bed (CT–bed), CT–flat-bed, Zero Tillage–raised-bed (ZT– bed) and ZT–flat-bed; and four weed management practices, viz . unweeded control, herbicide+Hand Weeding (HW), herbicide combination, and crop residue + herbicide were laid out in a split-plot design. S oybean produced higher seed yield (+7.6%) under raised-bed and wheat under flat-bed (+6.2%), but the system productivity was highest under CT –flat-bed. Pre-emergence application of pendimethalin followed by HW gave higher yield of soybean, while all weed control treatments were found equally good for wheat. Conventional tillage resulted in higher uptake by soybean of N (+5.0%), P (+4.4%) and K (+3.1%) than ZT, particularly under raised-bed conditions. In wheat, CT and ZT resulted in almost similar nutrient uptake under flat-bed. Total nutrient uptake of the system was similar for N and P under all tillage and crop establishment practices, while herbicide+HW gave 4.9 –7.2% higher uptake than herbicide combination or crop residue+herbicide. Net benefit: cost ratio of the system was the highest (> 2.0) under ZT – flat-bed and herbicide combination. There was beneficial effect on physico-chemical properties of soil under ZT and residue application, but it is necessary to run the experiment in long-term to see the cumulative effect over time.