Nutrient efficiency concept is used to increase the overall performance of cropping system by providing economically optimum nutrition to the crop and at same time minimizing nutrient losses from the crop yield. The study was undertaken on the AICRP-IFS experiment located at BAU, Sabour having twelve treatments replicated four times in randomized block design. The data were taken after 34th cropping cycle. In this study, a modest initiative has been undertaken to assess the various nutrient use efficiencies for N, P, and K in rice-wheat under different integrated nutrient management (INM) treatments involving substitution of N by farm yard manure, wheat straw, and green manure along with levels of recommended doses of fertilizers and farmers’ practice. The results revealed that the overall AE, PE, APE, PFP, IUE, ARE, and partial nutrient balance (PNB) of N, P, and K for wheat crop was comparatively lower than that of rice crop which reflects that the residual effect of applied organic manures and fertilizers was more than the direct effect. PNB of crops for both the crops was near to 1 in INM plots which indicates that the yields and fertility status of soil is being sustained with respect N and P. However, K mining is being indicated through higher values of PNB for K. Overall, the results indicated that the integrated use of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers for last 34 years likely improved soil fertility, increased sustainable crop yield and uptake thereby led to increased nutrient use efficiency of applied nutrients and crops.

Intensive conventional tillage practice has deteriorated soil quality and decreased potassium (K) availability in soil under maize-based growing areas in eastern India. Consequently, maize productivity has declined over the years demonstrating the need for sustainable alternatives. A field study was carried out in 2018 in the eighth year of an on-going long-term experiment initiated in the year 2011 to understand the impact of different tillage practices in maize-based cropping systems on soil properties and K dynamics in Inceptisols of eastern India. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three levels of tillage practice as main plots: zero tillage, permanent raised bed and conventional tillage and in subplots as three different cropping systems viz. maize-maize, maize-wheat, and maize-chickpea. The result showed that under tillage practices, soil parameters were improved in zero tillage over the permanent raised bed and conventional tillage and among cropping systems, maize-chickpea had more nutrient availability in compared with maize-maize and maize-wheat. Soil organic carbon was built up by 10.2% in zero tillage over the initial soil measured at the time of the start of the experiment. The maximum content of water-soluble K, exchangeable K, and nonexchangeable K were recorded in zero tillage and maize-chickpea as compared to other tillage practices and cropping systems. Among Q/I parameters, potential buffering capacity (PBC^K) was maximum and activity ratio (AR^K) and labile K (K_L) were minimum under zero tillage and maize-chickpea cropping system than the other tillage practices and cropping systems. Therefore, zero tillage and maize-chickpea could be better practices over the other tillage practices and cropping systems for improving soil quality and K availability in soil.

Intensive tillage practices have degraded soil physical quality and reduced soil organic carbon (SOC) content. As a result, crop productivity has decreased over time, highlighting the need for conservation practices. For this, a long-term field experiment at Research Farm, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour dominated by Inceptisols in Indo-Gangetic plains of Bihar was conducted to study the effect of three tillage practices, that is, zero tillage (ZT), permanent raised bed (PB) and conventional tillage (CT) and three cropping system namely maize-maize, maize-wheat and maize-chickpea on different pools of carbon and soil aggregation. After 7 years, it was observed that conservation tillage practices (ZT and PB) had significant positive effect on total soil organic carbon, active pools of carbon and percentage distribution of aggregates. The total organic carbon (TOC) and mean weight diameter (MWD) was found highest under PB (8.62 g kg⁻¹ and 1.70 mm, respectively) which was at par with ZT (8.50 g kg⁻¹ and 1.68 mm, respectively) and the lowest in CT (7.89 g kg⁻¹ and 1.37 mm, respectively) while, among cropping systems, maize-chickpea system recorded significantly higher TOC and MWD (8.48 g kg⁻¹ and 1.67 mm, respectively). Carbon Management Index (CMI) was also found higher under ZT (152) and maize-chickpea system (149). As a result of our study, it was observed that combining conservation practices (PB and ZT) with appropriate crop rotation (maize-chickpea) appears to be the best option for restoring and improving the health of light-textured Inceptisols by increasing soil organic matter (SOM) and improving soil physical properties.