Assessing Soil Quality for Sustainable Land Management Under Different Tillage Systems in the Temperate Himalaya

Soil is a fundamental constituent of our environment. In recent years Soil quality indices (SQI) have been anticipated as an important tool for analyzing soil management practice effects on the quality of soil together with tillage. The suitable management practices could be selected based on soil quality evaluation. The key motive of this study was to develop the SQI and the evaluation of SQI under different tillage systems in the Temperate Himalayan zone. The experimental site was the research station of SKUAST-K, Shalimar, Srinagar. The field was no-tilled for the last 18 years. In this study, composite soil samples were collected from three distinct tillage systems: conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT), and no-tillage (NT). Three key soil functions of the soil were determined which include soil capacity for root development (RD), nutrient supply (NS) capacity of soil and water storage (WS). The contribution of soil capacity for RD was highest in RT (32.23%) while NS capacity and WS capacity of the soil were found to be maximum in RT (61.14 and 22.83% respectively). Of the 31 soil quality parameters considered for the study, four parameters like water holding capacity (WHC), mean weight diameter (MWD), bulk density (BD), organic carbon (OC), and soil porosity and were recognized as the key indicators of soil quality. Across the treatments RT (0.86) recorded the highest soil quality rating followed by CT (0.74) and NT (0.69), indicating RT is the most apt management technique that should be adopted owing to its potential of conserving/enhancing the soil quality (SQ).