Productivity, soil health, and carbon management index of Indian Himalayan intensified maize-based cropping systems under live mulch based conservation tillage practices

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through agriculture, especially in the rainfed ecosystem, can be achieved by effective conservation management practices. Therefore, the study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the inclusion of intensified leguminous live mulch systems can improve system productivity, carbon management index (CMI), and soil health. Two cropping systems viz, summer maize-rainy season maize-lentil (SM-RM-L); and summer maize-rainy season maize-mustard (SM-RM-Ma) and five tillage and mulching practices such as 1) no-till (NT); 2) NT with live mulch (NT-LM); 3) reduced tillage (RT); 4) RT with live mulch (RT-LM); and 5) conventional tillage (CT) were tested in a split-plot design. Results revealed that yield attributes and yields of summer and rainy season maize, and cowpea were higher under SM-RM-L than the SM-RM-Ma cropping system. But in the winter, crop yields were higher under SM-RM-Ma than the SM-RM-L cropping system. NT-LM and RT-LM recorded 39.5 % and 48.4 % average higher grain yield of summer maize over the CT. The soil under the NT-LM had the maximum very labile C (2.32 g kg(-1)); the labile C fraction was the highest in soil under CT (1.72 g kg(-1)). The non-labile C fraction of soil organic carbon (SOC) was higher under NT and NT-LM than the rest of the tillage/mulch treatments in 0-10 cm depth. The soil under RT-LM had a higher lability index (LL1.62) than the rest of the treatments in 0-10 cm depth. Conversely, in 10-20 cm depth, the soil under NT had higher LI (1.77) than the rest of the treatments. The soil under NT-LM and RT-LM had higher CPI and CMI than those in the rest of the treatments. Water holding capacity (WHC), infiltration rate, and cumulative infiltration were significantly higher under NT-LM and RT-LM than the other treatments. Thus, the study indicated the positive role of LM based conservation tillage practices in improving soil properties, carbon management indices, and productivity of maize-based cropping systems in the eastern Indian Himalayas.