Conservation agriculture (CA)-based tillage practices in maize for enhancing crop yield, resource use efficiency and soil health: A review Biswakarma Niraj1,*, Rai Bishesh2, Nayak Somanath1, Radheshyam1 1Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi-110 012, India 2Department of Agricultural Meteorology and Physics, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidayala, Mohanpur-741 252, West Bengal, India *Corresponding Author: Niraj Biswakarma, ICAR-Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, India, Email: biswaniraj666@gmail.com
Online published on 10 July, 2023. Abstract The triple challenge of acute water crisis, stagnant crop yield and soil health deterioration in NW Indo Gangetic Plains (IGP) ramble a search for potential alternative crop establishment technique (CET). Hence, maize-based crop rotations under best-bet conservation agriculture (CA) practices can plays a critical role in sustainable crop production. The CA-based tillage and CET viz. zero tillage (ZT) and permanent raised beds (PB) hold potential to intensify crop yield per hectare, improving resource use efficiency besides bringing desirable changes in soil physico-chemical and biological properties. Therefore, it needs to be popularized in larger scale chiefly under maize-based rotation to makes farming more attractive, profitable and sustainable. Top Keywords Conservation agriculture, Maize, Resource use efficiency, Soil health, Tillage, Yield. Top |