Initiating conservation agriculture shows reduced soil CO2 emissions and improved soil aggregate stability in the first season in rainfed cropping in India

Abstract

The reported study was undertaken to determine which soil health indicators showed measurable signs of improvement, during the first year of the process of introducing a Conservation Agriculture (CA) cropping system in rainfed areas in Madhya Pradesh, India. Soil health indicators of soil aggregate stability, soil-atmosphere CO2 fluxes, water infiltration, soil moisture, potentially mineralisable nitrogen, soil organic content and bulk density were measured. Results demonstrate that generally, there were improvements in all measured soil health indicators in CA soils, with decrease in CO2 emissions and increase in soil aggregates being statistically significant.