Changes in Soil Physical Properties and Soybean Productivity under Preparatory Tillage Systems in Virgin Vertisols of Central India

Preparatory tillage, undoubtedly, is one of the most crucial practices that alter soil physical attributes and also affect crop growth and yield. In this sense, this experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of various preparatory tillage systems on soil physical properties and soybean productivity thereby find out a suitable tillage combination for vertisol of Vidarbha region of central India. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with eight tillage treatments and three replicates. Experimental results revealed that soil physical properties and productivity of soybean differed significantly under different preparatory tillage system and zero tillage. Further data revealed that conventional tillage treatment T8 (1ploughing + 2 tyne harrow + blade harrow) and T7 (1 Ploughing + 1 Tyne Harrow + 1 Rotavator) significantly improved the soil physical properties (infiltration rate, bulk density, porosity, soil moisture content) and grain yield (2378 and 2268 kg ha-1, respectively). Moreover zero tillage treatment T1 and shallow tillage treatments (1Blade Harrow + 1Rotavator and 1Tyne Harrow + 1 Rotavator) did not show any significant improvement in soil physical properties and grain yield of soybean.