Impact of Conservation Tillage on Soil Physical Properties under Sorghum-wheat Cropping System in Semi-arid Tropics of Haryana, India

The study was conducted at Research Farm of CCSHAU, Hisar. Three tillage (Zero tillage, conventional tillage and minimum tillage) and four P treatments (0, 45, 60, and 75 kg ha-1) were applied in wheat. The mean weight diameter of soil aggregates in 0-5 cm soil depth was significantly higher under zero tillage as compared to other tillage practices. Maximum aggregation was in 5-10 cm soil depth. Amongst three tillage systems, bulk density increased with depth. The saturated hydraulic conductivity was significantly improved under zero tillage as compared to other practices. Moisture content was significantly higher at field capacity under zero tillage as compared to other methods, while moisture content at permanent wilting point (PWP) was not affected significantly by tillage treatments. Infiltration rate was almost identical under conventional tillage and minimum tillage practices, respectively which was significantly lower than the zero tillage

Sustainable Issues and Crop Diversification of the Rice-Wheat Cropping System for Higher Productivity and Resource Use Efficiency: A Review

The rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) played a significant role in national food security. This system is having a huge potential to feed the increasing population of India. But with continuous adoption of the rice-wheat system, different issues and challenges have emerged and resulted in the decline or stagnated the productivity of this system. In these conditions’ diversification of the RWCS can be a viable option for higher productivity, profitability and efficient and sustainable use of available natural resources. This review mainly highlighted the major issues associated with the rice-wheat cropping system in India along with the alternate cropping system for crop diversification by substitution various crops viz. legume, maize, oilseed, fodder, vegetables and cash crop to tackle them. The comparison of various cropping system in term their crop productivity, economics analysis, water and nutrient productivity, and maintaining soil health

Screening of Bread and Durum Wheat Varieties on Yield and Nutritional Quality for Their Tolerance to Zinc Stress

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is one of the most prevalent micronutrient deficiencies and is mostly brought on by a diet high in cereal grains with low Zn contents. In order to screen prominent bread (12 varieties) and durum (6 varieties) wheat varieties grown under Zn deficient (control) and sufficient (Zn @ 25 mg kg−1 as soil) condition and a pot experiment was conducted in the screen house of the Department of Soil Science, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. In the Zn deficient and sufficient soil, the highest yield was observed in HD-2967 (14.57 & 16.13 g/pot) and PWD-291 (8.68 & 11.70 g/pot) of bread and durum wheat, respectively. In Zn-deficient soil, the highest total protein content and Zn content in grain were observed in DBW-88 (8.17 & 26.50%) and PWD-291 (8.42 & 26.52%) of bread and durum wheat, respectively. All the bread wheat varieties were found to be semi tolerant, i.e. the percentage increase in yield was in the category of 10–25% except WH-52 and RAJ-3765 where increase in yield was more than 25%. The maximum increase in yield was found 28.91% in the WH-542 and the minimum increase (10.70%) in the HD-2967 wheat varieties. For durum wheat, two varieties (WH-912 &WHD-943) were found to be semi tolerant, i.e. the percentage increase in yield was in the category of 10–25%. In conclusion, it was determined that this study is helpful for creating methods for micronutrient biofortification using various wheat varieties in south-central Asia.</p