Influence of various tillage practices on soil physical properties and wheat performance in different wheat-based cropping systems

Excessive tillage in conventional agriculture systems may cause plough pan, which alters soil physical properties, and thus adversely affects the crop growth and productivity. This study was conducted to monitor the effect of different tillage practices in wheat-based cropping systems on soil physical properties, allometry and grain yield of wheat. Wheat was planted in different cropping systems (viz. fallow-wheat, rice-wheat, cotton-wheat, mungbean-wheat and sorghum-wheat with zero tillage, conventional tillage, deep tillage and on two types of beds (60/30 cm with four rows) and (90/45 cm with six rows). Interaction between different tillage practices and cropping systems had significant effect on soil bulk density and total porosity, wheat allometry and grain yield. Minimum bulk density tied with higher total porosity was recorded in both types of bed sowing followed by deep tillage. This improvement in soil physical properties caused improvement in leaf area index and duration, specific leaf area, crop growth, and net assimilation rates. As a result, the productivity of bed sown wheat was better; however, grain yield of zero tilled wheat was low due to poor crop growth and net assimilation rate. Wheat productivity was substantially low when planted after sorghum; nonetheless, and was quite high when sown after mungbean. In crux, wheat planting on beds after mungbean is the best option considering the long-term environmental sustainability of wheat-based cropping systems.