Journal ID : AMA-23-01-2026-13751
[This article belongs to Volume - 57, Issue - 01]
Total View : 394

Title : Variation in soil physical properties of a Vertisol by land use practices and soil depths

Abstract :

Field study was conducted at Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) Research Farm, Lakhanwada, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) to evaluate the changes in soil physical properties of a Vertisol by different land use practices and soil depths after harvest of Kharif and Rabi seasons of 2015-16 and 2016-17. In this study, we investigated the variation in soil physical properties across seven land use practices i.e. L1: Uncultivated, L2: rice-wheat system with conventional agriculture (CT), L3: rice-wheat system with conservation agriculture (CA), L4: soybean-wheat system with CT, L5: soybean-wheat system with CA, L6: maize-wheat system with CT and L7: maize-wheat system with CA. Soil samples were collected from seven land use practices and three soil depths (0-5 cm, 5-15 cm and 15-30 cm) for analysed the soil physical properties. For statistical analysis of data in split plot design, land use practices were considered as main plot and depth (0-5 cm, 5-15 cm and 15-30 cm) as sub-plot treatments with three replications. The results showed significant differences between the land uses in soil physical properties. It was found that bulk density of soil after harvest of kharif crops varied from 1.32 to 1.51 Mg m-3 and 1.32 to 1.49 Mg m-3, and after harvest of rabi crops 1.33 to 1.49 Mg m-3 and 1.30 to 1.48 Mg m-3 during 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively with highest bulk density in L1 (uncultivated land) treatment. It was also found that infiltration rate under rice-wheat (R-W) system with CT in kharif season during both the years was much lower than that under R-W system with CA, while in rabi season the IR was comparable under different cropping systems but higher under CA as compared to CT. Variation in fractions of largest water stable aggregates (>5 mm) with soil depth during 2015-16 ranged from 5.2 to 6.8% (kharif) and 5.8 to 7.6% (rabi), while in 2016-17 the values varied from 6.4 to 8.5% (kharif) and 7.8 to 9.1% with highest value for 0-5 cm and lowest in 15-30 cm depth. Data clearly indicated that maximum (1.26, 1.34, 1.40, and 1.42 mm) and minimum (1.06, 1.14, 1.17 and 1.23 mm) mean weight diameters of soil aggregates after harvest of four crop cycles, respectively were obtained under L1 (uncultivated) and L6 (maize-wheat with CT) treatments, respectively.

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