Effect of resource conservation technologies on soil structural conditions in temporary waterlogged alluvial plains of the river Yamuna

A study was conducted in farmers’ fields of Rai block of Sonepat district, Haryana, India to study the long term impact of two widely adopted resource conservation technologies (RCT's) namely bed planting and zero tillage on structural properties of soils of recent alluvial plains of the river Yamuna. Aggregate mean weight diameter by dry sieving and wet sieving (DS-MWD and WS-MWD) under different RCT's were studied to compare structural condition of the soils under continuous use of these technologies. Other important structural indices such as dispersion ratio (a measure of ease of dispersion; DR), colloid moisture equivalent ratio (a measure of ease of percolation; CMER), erosion ratio (ER), stability index (SI), soil organic carbon (SOC), clay ratio (CR) were also studied to monitor the susceptibility of soil to erosion in the study area. Results revealed that in the surveyed villages under conventional tillage (CT), the mean (of 6 samples) magnitude of DR and ER were 0.58 and 0.82, respectively, and CMER was <1, which indicated the erodible nature of these soils. Analysis of data of bed and conventional systems revealed that on an average, there was about 19.08 % increase in SOC in bed planted system compared to conventional system. The decrease of DR, ER and CR from 0.66, 0.52 and 4.25 under CT to 0.42, 0.28 and 2.38 under beds indicated reduced eroding tendency of these soils under bed planting. Comparison of soil data of ZT and CT showed improvement (33.19 %) in SOC, and reduction in BD and PR under ZT plots compared to CT. The decrease of DR, ER and CR from 0.74, 0.63 and 5.99 under CT to 0.6, 0.46 and 3.8 under ZT indicated improved aggregation under ZT. Similarly increase in CMER and SI from 0.66 and 9.21 under CT to 0.7 and 20.4 under ZT also indicated improved soil structural condition by adoption of zero tillage. Thus, it was concluded that by adopting suitable RCT’s, soil carbon and aggregation were improved and soils became more resistant to erosion.