Effects of Land Leveling and Seeding Methods on Yield, System Productivity and Soil Properties in Wheat-Based Cropping Systems

A field experiment was conducted for three consecutive seasons of 2012 to 2015 to study the effect of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) based four cropping systems in sandy loam soil. The rainy (kharif) season crops included in the systems were pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucam), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), green gram (Vigna radiata) and cluster bean (Cyamous tetragocalobe). There were two methods of land leveling i.e. traditional land leveling (TLL) and precision laser leveling (PLL) and three crop seeding methods viz., conventional tillage (CT), zero tillage (ZT) and permanent raised broad bed-furrow (PBB). The inclusion of pulse crops in the cropping systems significantly improved the productivity of wheat compared with cereal crop of pearl millet. The PLL method significantly improved overall productivity of rainy season pulses by 5.5-14.7 per cent, pearl millet by 9.2 per cent and following wheat by 5.4-7.2 per cent as compared to TLL. Similarly, compared with TLL, the PLL method increased the pearl millet equivalent yield (PEY) and system protein productivity (SPP) by 7.2 per cent and 4.7-8.0 per cent, respectively. The yield of crops, PEY and SPP in grains, followed the order: PBB > ZT > CT. Results revealed that the pooled grain yield of pearl millet, pigeon pea, green gram and cluster bean with PBB increased by 10.9 and 23.4, 34.3, 16.9 per cent, respectively as compared to CT. Like-wise after harvest of rainy season crops the grain yield of wheat increased by 6.8-9.4 per cent with PBB as compared to CT. It was observed that system productivity depends on the changes in soil health caused by crop management practices. This study showed that three years of PBB system increased organic carbon contents (0.26 g kg-1), infiltration rate (2.1 mm h-1), available nitrogen (17 kg ha-1), phosphorus (1.4 kg ha-1) and potassium (10 kg ha-1) as compared to CT. The ZT seeded crops also performed better than CT, analogous with improvement in soil properties. The overall improvements in PEY and SPP and soil properties of system were observed to be highest in the case of pigeon pea-wheat and lowest in pearl millet-wheat cropping system.