Integrated effect of water harvesting, manuring and mulching on soil properties, growth and yield of crops in pearl millet-mungbean rotation

Abstract

Field trials were conducted for three years (1982-1984) to evaluate the integrated effect of water harvesting, manuring and mulching on soil properties, growth and yield of pearl millet and mung bean. The results showed that continuous crop production using water harvesting along with manuring and mulching significantly increased organic matter content of the soil from 0.23 to 0.45%, steady state infiltration rate from 12.0 to 16.2 cm h-1, moisture retention in soil (at 0.1 bar tension) from 10.0 to 12.1 % and reduced bulk density from 1.6 to 1.5 g cc-1 and soil strength from 8.0 to 4.5 kg cm-2. As a result of this there was an increase in soil moisture storage and a reduction in maximum daytime temperature (at 10 cm soil depth) up to 6-7°C during the crop growth period and thus significantly increased the growth and yield of mungbean (from 1.98 to 2.37 t ha-1 in 1984) and pearl millet (from 2.69 to 4.14 t ha-1 in 1983).