17 Jul Impact of Crop residue on soil fertility in perspective of rice-wheat cropping system
चावल-गेहूं की फसल प्रणाली के परिप्रेक्ष्य में मिट्टी की उर्वरता पर फसल अवशेषों का प्रभाव Crop residues (CRs) are considered a vital natural resource for conserving and sustaining soil productivity. Addition of CRs to soil is a useful tool in maintaining and increasing amounts of soil organic matter. Therefore, soils have significant capacity for C storage and to mitigate atmospheric CO2. As rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) is one of the world’s largest agricultural production systems, covering an area of ~26 M ha spread over the Indo Gangetic Plains (IGPs) in South Asia and China. Rice and wheat are harnessing enormous soil fertility therefore, to maintain the productivity of this system, replenishment of soil nutrients is necessary. It has not only resulted in mining of major nutrients (NPKS) from soil, created a nutrient imbalance, leading to deterioration in soil quality. Deficiencies of NPK are most extensive. One ton of wheat grains are estimated to remove 24.5, 3.8, and 27.3 kg N, P, and K, respectively, whereas similar production of rice grains removes 20.1 kg N, 4.9 kg P, and 25.0 kg K. Because of agricultural strength of the country, crop residues (CRs) production is also huge. In India, over 500 Mt of agricultural residues are produced every year. Punjab alone produces ~20.8 Mt of...