Impact of long-term fertilizers and manure application on C-sequestration efficiency under different cropping systems

Climate change is among the major global issues of the 21st century. This paper Revised: December, 2011 examined the impact of continuous cultivation of crops in rotation, and fertilizer Accepted: January, 2012 and manure application on soil organic carbon stock, carbon sequestration rate, carbon sequestration efficiency and projected grain yield increment in Inceptisol, Alfisol and Vertisol. Crop rotations included in the study were: ricewheatjute, soybeanwheat and sorghumwheat system at Barrackpore (Typic Eutrochrept), Ranchi (Typic Haplustalf) and Akola (Typic Haplustert), respectively. Field treatments included unfertilized (control), 100% N, 100%, NP, 100% NPK and 100% NPK + FYM. It was observed that the imbalanced fertilizer application (N and NP) were not encouraged for carbon sequestration rate and carbon sequestration efficiency in Inceptisol and Alfisol. However, treatment effect was prominently observed for C- sequestration efficiency and C- sequestration rate in Vertisol (Typic Haplustert) under sorghum-wheat system. Thus, SOC restoration process could be improved by a set of management practices in a long-run. The results suggest that under high intensive cropping system recommended dose of inorganic NPK and NPK+FYM maintained soil quality parameters, which in turn supports better crop productivity and C-sequestration rate.