Evaluation of No-tillage Rice Cover Crop Cropping Systems for Organic Farming

The objectives of this study were to evaluate no-tillage cover crop cropping systems for organic farming in paddy. The experiment was performed at Ihyeon series (silt loam: 9.1% sand, 73.0% silt and 17.9% clay) which affected by different management practices. Planthopper population per 20 plant was significantly higher 65.3 for conventional tillage with chemical compounds (control) compared with 3.4~9.6 for no-tillage treatments (without rice straw or green manure, amended with rice straw, hairy vetch, rape, rye, and Chinese milk vetch). Also, disease severity of sheath blight was significantly higher 10.5% for control compared to 0.7~2.9% for no-tillage treatments. Four weed species, namely Monochoria vaginalis, Ludwigia prostrata, Rotala indica, and Aneilema keisak occurred in no-tillage paddy, whereas Monochoria vaginalis occurred in control only. The pH, available phosphate, and microbial biomass C in paddy were steeply decreased in response to submerging, but increased at first heading stage. Soil -N content at first heading stage was significantly higher in no-tillage treatments compared with control. The grain yield was significantly higher in 4.30 Mg for control than other treatments. Meanwhile, rice productivity was significantly higher in 2.69 Mg for no-tillage amended with Chinese milk vetch compared to other no-tillage treatments. The number of panicle per plant, grain number perpanicle, and percent ripened grain were highly related for increasing the yield of rice. These results show that Chinese milk vetch was optimum cover crop for organic farming in no-tillage paddy.