Residue Retention Effects on Productivity of Sugarcane (Plant)–Sugarcane (Ratoon)–Wheat and Rice–Wheat Cropping Systems in North-West India

Huge quantities of crop residues are generated every year in the form of wheat, paddy straw and sugarcane leaves/tops after harvesting of crop. Besides the potential utilization of crop residues for animal feed, mulching, thatching, fuel, etc., large portion of unutilized crop residues abandoned in fields or subjected to open-field burning practices create severe air pollution and hamper soil fertility. The presence of crop residues on the field surface hinders the ploughing operation and leads to delay in sowing of succeeding crops in the same field. Taking above points in view, a field experiment was conducted with prime objectives (i) to assess the impacts of rice–wheat straw and plant and ratoon sugarcane trash management on productivity and (ii) to evaluate the methods of wheat sowing after rice and sugarcane ratoon. Results elucidated that in comparison with rice–wheat system, a significant increase in the cane-equivalent yield was observed under sugarcane-based system. Considering the yields of sugarcane and wheat crops, the cane-equivalent yield ranged from 91.1 to 115.7 t ha⁻¹ in sugarcane (plant)–sugarcane (ratoon)–wheat system. The higher cane-equivalent yields under residue recycling + Trichoderma application confirmed that residue recycling in combination of Trichoderma was effective in both the cropping systems, but higher benefits could be achieved under sugarcane–ratoon–wheat cropping system.