Introduction: Conservation agriculture is a sustainable system of farming that safeguard and conserves natural resources besides enhancing crop production. The biological properties of soil are the most sensitive indicator to assess the short term impact of management practices such as tillage and residue incorporation.Methods: Nine treatments of tillage and residue management practices [Reduced till direct seeded rice-zero till barley (RTDSR–ZTB); RTDSR–ZTB–green gram residue (Gg); Zero till direct seeded rice–zero till barley–zero till green gram (ZTDSR–ZTB–ZTGg); RTDSR–ZTB + rice residue at 4 t ha 1 (RTDSR–ZTB_RR4); RTDSR–ZTB_RR6; un-puddled transplanted rice (UPTR)–ZTB–Gg; UPTR–ZTB_RR4; UPTR–ZTB_RR6, and puddled transplanted rice (PTR)–RTB] executed under fixed plot for five years on crop productivity and soil biological properties under rice-barley production system.Results: The shifting in either RTDSR or ZTDSR resulted in yield penalty in rice compared to PTR. The PTR recorded highest pooled grain yield of 3.61 ha⁻¹. The rice grain yield reduced about 10.6% under DSR as compared to PTR. The ZTB along with residue treatments exhibited significantly higher grain yield over ZTB, and the RTDSR-ZTBRR6 registered highest pooled grain yield of barley. The system productivity (12.45 t ha⁻¹) and sustainable yield index (0.87) were highest under UPTR-ZTBRR6. Biological parameters including microbial biomass carbon, soil respiration, microbial enzymes (Alkaline phosphatase, nitrate reductase and peroxidase), fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis, ergosterol, glomalin related soil proteins, microbial population (bacteria, fungi and actinobacteria) were found to be significantly (p < 0.05) effected by different nutrient management practices. Based on the PCA analysis, Fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis, microbial biomass carbon, soil respiration, nitrate reductase and fungi population were the important soil biological parameters indicating soil quality and productivity in present experiment. The results concluded that UPTR-ZTBRR6 was a more suitable practice for maintaining system productivity and soil biological health.Discussion: The understanding of the impact of different tillage and residue management practices on productivity, soil biological properties and soil quality index under rice-barley cropping system will help in determining the combination of best conservation agriculture practices for improved soil quality and sustainable production.

To increase the area, production and productivity of sugarcane and legumes/oilseeds for increasing the profit of the farmers’, field experiments were conducted at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Karnal during 2005-06 and 2006-07 followed by demonstrations on intercropping of legumes/oilseed with sugarcane at farmers’ field in Kaithal district during 2009-10 and 2010-11. Cane yield did not reduce significantly due to intercropping except raya during 2005 -06. The percent incidence of pink borer, shoot borer, top borer and root borer remained below economical threshold level (ETL). In all intercropping systems, total land equivalent ratio (LERt) was greater than unity, indicated yield advantage for the intercropped plots. Land equivalent coefficient (LEC) followed the same pattern as LERt. Total area time equivalent ratio (ATERt) values showed an advantage (22-28 %) with all intercropping systems than sole cropping with maximum advantage from sugarcane + chickpea. Sugarcane was more competitive than pea and lentil intercrops, whereas, raya and chickpea were more competitive than sugarcane. Higher competitive ratio values for the intercrops (CRi) indicated that all the intercrops were more competitive than sugarcane. Total values of actual yield loss (AYL) showed an advantage of 22-38% from intercropping compared to sole cropping. Highest monetary advantage index (MAI) value was obtained from sugarcane + pea intercropping system (75779). However, the minimum MAI was obtained from sugarcane + lentil intercropping system (62382). Demonstrations on intercropping at farmers’ field also resulted in higher gross returns, returns over variable cost and benefit: cost ratio.

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The sustainable productivity of rice–wheat cropping systems relies on soil health, and soil health can be positively influenced by treating previous crop residues using conservation tillage practices. The present study examined the impact of three rice residue-management practices under zero-tilled wheat (ZTW) and conventionally tilled wheat (CTW), along with two rice-sowing practices, during rice cultivation on soil functional microbial diversity, physiological profiling, and grain yields of rice and wheat. Anchored residues (ARs) under ZTW exhibited significantly (p ≤ 0.05) high average well color development—31.43% more than CTW with no residue (NR). CTW with residue burning (BUR) showed a 5.42% increase in the Shannon diversity index compared to CTW-NR. Substrate richness was 10.02% higher in CTW-BUR compared to CTW-NR. CTW-BUR demonstrated the highest 17.98% increase in the Shannon evenness index compared to CTW-NR. The direct-seeded rice (DSR) system generally surpassed puddled transplanted rice (PTR) in most indices, except for the Shannon evenness index values. ZTW-AR exhibited the highest utilization of amino acids, carboxylic acids, and phenolic compounds, while CTW-BUR exhibited the highest utilization of carbohydrates and polymers utilization, and ZTW with no-residue (NR) exhibited the highest utilization of amines. Rice and wheat grain yields were highest with full residue in ZTW and lowest in CTW-NR. PTR supported higher rice yields, while DSR was superior for wheat. These findings highlight the favorable role of residue retention with no tillage during wheat cultivation in the maintenance of soil quality and rice–wheat productivity.