Impact of zero tillage agriculture on the avian fauna in Ludhiana, Punjab

Abstract

Aim: Birds are excellent indicators of the state of a healthy environment and form an integral component of agricultural ecosystem. Rapid agricultural intensification leads to uniform habitat system resulting in decline of farmland bird diversity throughout the world. Birds are intimately related to agricultural habitatfor their needs such as food, shelter and breeding places. Keeping this in mind, it was planned to study the effect of zero tillage agriculture on avian diversity to generate baseline data. Methodology: Bird observations were recorded in zero till wheat fields and direct seeded paddy fields of PunjabAgricultural University (latitude 30° 54'147 N and longitude of 75° 47' 642 E and 244 m above mean sea level), Ludhiana from May 2014 to April 2015. Line Transect Method was used for the survey of different bird species. Relative abundance (%) was calculated as: (ni/N) x 100, where ni is the number of birds of ith species and N is the total number of birds of all species. Results: Species recorded in zero till wheat and direct seeded paddy crop was 23 and 21 respectively Seven omnivore and five grainivorous bird species were recorded as overlapping species in zero till and direct seeded paddy crops. Highest value of species richness was recorded at ripening stage of zero till wheat crop. Results of the present study indicated that zero till wheat and direct seeded paddy attracts more bird species as compared to intensively cultivated paddy Interpretation: In the direct seeded paddy crop, species richness was highest both at seedling stage and reproductive stage. In zero till, farming stubbles and chaff from the previous crop remained undisturbed on soil surface, and undisturbed soil provided spilled grains, weed seeds, insects and small mammals to birds to feed on, so greater number of species was evident. From the present study, it is summarized that species abundance and species diversity was more in zero tillage crop fields as compared to intensively cultivated fields, which signifies that zero till farming has potential for conservation of avian biodiversity in a more sustainable way, while allowing the farmers to continue cropping in intensively cultivated agro-climatic zones.