Co-incorporating green manure and crop straw increases crop productivity and improves soil quality with low greenhouse-gas emissions in a crop rotation

Abstract

In a nine-year field experiment in a wheat–maize–sunflower cropping system in Hetao Irrigation Area, Inner Mongolia, China, organic amendments applied as straw, manure, green manure, and the combination of green manure and straw increased wheat and maize yield, soil aggregate stability, and soil microbial activity in comparison with chemical fertilizer, without changing greenhouse gas emission intensity.