Influence of organic and inorganic farming practices on production potential and soil health under different cropping systems in Mid Himalayan Region

The effect of different farming practices and cropping systems on equivalent yield and soil health was observed from Kharif 2014 to Rabi 2015-16. Organic farming practice resulted in significantly highest MGEY, whereas, maize–wheat and mash–wheat remained at par with each other in terms of MGEY. The same treatment remained par with integrated farming practice resulted in significantly higher uptake of N, P, K over inorganic farming practice. A reduction of 7.2% in bulk density was recorded under organic farming practice, while inorganic farming practice resulted in an increase of 1.6% over its initial value at the end of experiment. Soil organic carbon and microbial biomass carbon increased by 30 and 53%, respectively under organic farming practice, while, inorganic farming practice resulted in a decrease of microbial biomass carbon by 1.06% over its initial value. Organic farming practice resulted in an increase of about 24, 50 and 28% in available N, P and K, respectively over its initial value, while its corresponding values under inorganic farming practice were 15, 35 and 20%. Legume based mash–gram cropping system improved the available N, P, K and soil physical and biological properties over all other cropping systems.