Conservation Agriculture for Soil Health and Carbon Sequestration Maity Pragati Pramanik1, Jayaraman Somasundaram2, Datta Ashim3, Mondal S.4, Parihar C.M.1, Choudhury Madhu3, JHA Pramod2, Bhattacharyya R.1, Bandyopadhyay K.K.1, Chakraborty Debashis1* 1ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 2ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 3ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana 4ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar *Corresponding author, Email: debashis.chakraborty@icar.gov.in
Online published on 22 March, 2022. Abstract Conventional agriculture practices over long-run have generated a number of challenges for sustainability of agriculture, viz., soil degradation, depletion of ground water level, declining soil organic matter, loss of soil biodiversity, subsurface compaction, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Conservation agriculture (CA) has been seen as an option to maintain the soil health and improve soil organic carbon (SOC) storage, amongst other collateral benefits which may ensure agricultural sustainability. CA modifies soil hydro-physical properties such as an increase in water infiltration, reductions in runoff, evaporation and soil loss, thus it helps in reverting soil degradation and sustaining the soil health. There are reports on improved soil chemical and biological properties on different agro-ecologies under CA throughout the globe. Meta data analysis showed that NT significantly improved mean weight diameter (MWD) and field capacity moisture content by 19-58% and 6-16%, respectively, and resulted in no significant change in bulk density (BD), but infiltration rate increased by 66%. CA improves SOC stocks by addition of more C inputs through greater biomass production and reduction in SOC losses due to surface soil cover and locking SOC in soil aggregates. This causes net sequestration of atmospheric C into the soil, leading to climate change mitigation. Potential impacts of CA on soil health and SOC sequestration through various practices such as minimal soil tilling, residue management, and diversified crop rotation from the field studies have been widely reported in the literature. Although studies on SOC sequestration potential of CA had contradictory reports under diverse soil and climatic conditions, and need to be synthesized for site-specific recommendations. Nevertheless, findings of majority of studies suggest that CA can be a potential alternative to the conventional agricultural practices for managing soil health and improving soil C stock, and thereby sustaining productivity and mitigate climate change. Top Key words: Aggregation, bulk density, porosity, soil organic carbon, crop residue, zero tillage. Top |