Long term effect of different tillage systems on soil physical properties and yield of wheat

The one of the most predominant cropping systems of Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India is rice–wheat cropping system. Intensive tillage in this era of fast crop cycle resulted in declining of soil physical condition which causes stagnant productivity. Keeping in view the importance of the system for food security of the country, this research performed to investigate the effects of different soil tillage practices on soil physical properties, growth and yield’s components of wheat. This experiment was conducted with rotary tillage, and conventional tillage and four replicates in some of the farmlands of Malhendi village of shamli, UP during 2017-18 to investigate the effect of long term rotary tillage on physical fertility of soils and their effect on crop growth and yield of wheat under rice-wheat system. The results obtained showed that different soil tillage practices could cause significant changes in the soil bulk density, penetration resistance and crop growth and yield. The continuous rotary tillage (RT) for more than 10 years in wheat resulted in increase in bulk density and penetration resistance in subsoil layer depth as compared to conventional tillage (CT). This increased soil penetration resistance and effect of compact plough sole hindered root growth in deep soil layer under rotary tillage as compared to conventional tillage this two different systems of soil management significantly affect yield and yield components of wheat. In this case, the conventional tillage produced the increased level of grain yield (5909.63 kg.ha-1) as opposed to the rotary tillage system (4594.12 kg.ha-1). In the present study, the highest and lowest number of grains per spike, were obtained under the conventional tillage (46.38 grains per spike) and the rotary tillage (35.64 grains per spike) respectively. Also, highest and lowest levels of spikelet per spike were observed in the conventional tillage system (46.38) and the rotary tillage (37.24), respectively while spike length were (10.13cm) in conventional tillage and (8.14 cm) in rotary tillage systems. The grain weight per ear has been obtained in the conventional tillage system and the rotary tillage system were 2.99g & 2.73g while that of the1000 grain weight were 49.9g and 36.52g respectively. Similarly the plant height were observed in the conventional tillage (109.20 cm) and no tillage systems (98.25cm). On this ground of performance studies of longer time use of rotary tillage, some deep soil loosening tillage system combined with rotary tillage at certain specified interval of years may be better option.