Effect of tillage options and straw management on crops productivity and soil fertility in rice-wheat-cropping pattern

A field experiment was conducted during winter season to study the productivity under three n fertilizer levels (80,100 and 120% n of recommended dose),two levels of straw retention (0 and 30%) and three tillage options (permanent raised bed,fresh bed and conventional tillage practice) in a rice-wheat cropping system. tillage options have been found to affect thousand grain weight (tgw) and grain yield where 49.6,52.9 and 54.7 g for tgw and 3.77,3.98 and 4.41 t/ha for grain yield for conventional,permanent bed and fresh bed,respectively were found for wheat. the spikes/m2 was 343,322 and 337 while,the spikelets/spike were recorded as 17.2,17.6 and 17.8 for conventional,permanent and fresh bed,respectively. different tillage options were found to cause the formation of grains/spike,43.2,49.7 and 50.8,respectively. therefore,other yield components were assumed to be enhanced in response to fresh bed tillage option. fresh bed with 30% straw retention produced highest productivity and similar results were also obtained from permanent beds with 30% straw retention. fresh bed with 120% recommended n produced the highest productivity for wheat which was similar to permanent bed with 120% n. the increase in yield was associated with progressive increase in all growth components and will give a new insight to identify the strategy for the development of wheat and other crops cultivation. © 2016,pcsir-scientific information centre. all rights reserved.