Raise green manure crop in combine harvested wheat fields

摘要

In Punjab, rice-wheat is the predominant cropping system. Traditionally, wheat straw is removed from the fields for use as cattle feed. With the advent of combine harvesting, farmers prefer to burn crop residues left in the field as these interfere with tillage and seeding operations. Burning of crop residues will, however, result in huge loss of precious plant nutrients along with health hazards and climatic warming. Crops grown immediately after incorporation of the cereal residues often yield poorly due to the deficiency of plant available N and accumulation of organic acids. So, there is an urgent need to preserve declining soil health and deteriorating environment. The best alternative will be to recycle the residues into agricultural land to improve soil and crop productivity. But farmers will only incorporate the crop residues if there is no yield loss in the short-term and hopefully some yield benefits are obtained in the long run. A fallow period of 50-60 days is available after the harvest of wheat and before the planting of rice for decomposition of wheat straw and raising of a green manure crop. Apart from enhancing residue decomposition, green manure crop supplies large amounts of N to the following rice crop.