Logo image
Reversing negative nitrogen balances in intensive rice-based cropping with Conservation Agriculture
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Reversing negative nitrogen balances in intensive rice-based cropping with Conservation Agriculture

Md. Ariful Islam, Richard W. Bell, Chris Johansen, M. Jahiruddin, Md. Enamul Haque and Wendy Vance
Nutrient cycling in agroecosystems, Vol.130, pp.281-298
2025
pdf
Published865.38 kBDownloadView
CC BY V4.0 Open Access

Abstract

Crop residue retention Legume crops Nitrogen accumulation Nitrogen dynamics Nitrogen uptake Strip planting
The extent to which Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices alter nitrogen (N) balance in intensive rice-based cropping systems of the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain was examined, focusing on a legume dominated-system (LDS) and a cereal dominated-system (CDS) in north-west Bangladesh. Three crop establishment methods were imposed—strip planting (SP) and bed planting (BP) for non rice crops with non-puddled rice establishment; compared with conventional tillage (CT) for non rice crops along with puddled transplanting of rice. Two levels of crop residue retention were superimposed—high (HR) and low (LR - conventional farm practice) crop residue retention. The CA practices (SP and non-puddled rice with HR) increased total soil N concentrations, and the soil N-stocks at 0–0.075 m over CT and LR in both CDS and LDS sites after 2.5 years. At 0–0.15 m soil depth, total soil N concentrations increased over time under SP and BP, but decreased with CT. In LDS, annual soil N increase (65 kg N ha −1 ) occurred with SP while negligible N losses were observed under CT at both levels of residue retention at 0–0.15 m soil depth. The N accumulation rate under HR was 24.5 kg N ha −1 higher than LR. The N balance calculation over 2.5 years indicated an estimated soil N gain (8–11%) in SPHR and SPLR but a loss in CT. In CDS, neither treatments accumulated soil N but N losses were greater in CT. The effect of crop establishment methods on soil NH₄-N and NO₃-N at the early growth stage of cool dry season cropping was small and inconsistent. However, SP with HR maintained higher overall crop and system N uptake compared to CT and LR. Thus, CA practices altered the N balance which slowed the decline in soil N-stocks in the cereal-dominated rotation while resulting in a positive N balance in the legume-dominated rotation.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#12 Responsible Consumption & Production

Metrics

4 File views/ downloads
39 Record Views

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.45 Soil Science
3.45.112 Soil Carbon Dynamics
Web Of Science research areas
Soil Science
ESI research areas
Agricultural Sciences
Logo image