Design

This is paper on the rice-wheat systems of South Asia, a system where its sustainability is questioned. The paper looks at the soil physical properties and carbon pools in a 10-year CA experiment. The treatment that had triple NT in all three crops (CA5) -- rice-mungbean-wheat - with residues left on the surface resulted in higher soil aggregates than conventional tillage - puddled transplanted rice - tilled wheat. Soil infiltration rate, sorptivity, and saturated hydraulic conductivity, yields and net returns were also significantly higher in CA5 than in CT. They conclude that CA-based rice–wheat–mungbean system (CA5) would be an alternative to conventional PTR-CTW system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India and in similar agro-climatic situations of South Asia.