Micronutrient uptake in wheat as affected by long term zero tillage and different moisture regimes in legume based cropping systems of north-western Indo-gangetic plains

A field experiment “Micronutrient uptake in wheat as affected by long term zero tillage and different moisture regimes in legume based cropping systems of north-western Indo-Gangetic Plains was conducted during 2017-18 and 2018-19 on an on-going long term experiment on ‘Effect of varying moisture regimes in zero-till wheat succeeding mungbean and sorghum’ since 2006 at, CCS HAU, Hisar. The experiments consisted of two cropping systems (mungbean-wheat, MW and sorghum-wheat, SW), three tillage practices viz. CT-CT (conventional tillage in both kharif & rabi seasons), CT-ZT (conventional tillage in kharif & zero tillage in rabi seasons) and ZT-ZT (zero tillage in both kharif & rabi seasons); and three moisture regimes {IW/CPE = 0.60(M0.60), 0.75 (M0.75) and 0.90 (M0.90)}. The adoption of ZT-ZT practice increased uptake of micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) as compared to CT-ZT and CT-CT practices in all the moisture regimes under mungbean-wheat and sorghum-wheat cropping systems. The uptake of Fe was significantly higher in mungbean-wheat cropping system (16.56 and 21.19%) as compared to sorghum-wheat cropping system by grain and straw, respectively. It was significantly higher in ZT-ZT (38.49 and 34.34; 35.16 and 19.53%) and CT-ZT (23.22 and 10.95 and 17.37 and 6.69%) as compared to CT-CT over all the moisture regimes under mungbean-wheat and sorghum-wheat cropping systems by grain and straw, respectively. In present study, uptake of Fe was significantly higher at M0.90 (16.60 and 13.59; and 15.71 and 12.74%) and M0.75 (8.70 and 5.87; and 6.06 and 4.98%) as compared to M0.60 over all the tillage practices in mungbean-wheat and sorghum-wheat cropping systems by grain and straw, respectively. The similar trends were observed for uptake of Mn, Zn and Cu by the wheat grain and straw. Therefore long term zero tillage with inclusion of legumes can be a promising alternative to sustainably increase uptake of micronutrients in soil for cereal-cereal cropping systems which ultimately plays a pivotal role to sustain the crop productivity and optimum ecosystem functioning with improving soil health.