Rl. Yadav et al., RECYCLING SUGARCANE TRASH TO CONSERVE SOIL ORGANIC-CARBON FOR SUSTAINING YIELDS OF SUCCESSIVE RATOON CROPS IN SUGARCANE, Bioresource technology, 49(3), 1994, pp. 231-235
Citations number
10
Categorie Soggetti
Energy & Fuels","Biothechnology & Applied Migrobiology",Agriculture
Sugarcane trash, a crop residue constituting 10-20% of the weight of c
ane harvested, was either burnt, removed or retained as mulch in three
successive ratoon crops in a field experiment conducted at Lucknow, I
ndia, during 1990-1994. Within three years, trash retained as mulch im
proved the soil organic carbon by 0.13% (on 0.55%), available N by 37
kg ha-1 and available P by 10 kg ha-1, thereby increasing the yield of
the third ratoon crop by 1.9% of the yield of the first ratoon crop.
On the other hand, trash burning reduced the organic carbon by 0.02%,
available N by 15 kg ha-1 and available P by 16 kg ha-1, hence causing
a 13.2% reduction in the yield of the third ratoon crop compared to t
he first one. In the second experiment, during 1992-1994, a first rato
on crop was grown with and without trash mulch in combination with N a
pplication at 0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 kg ha-1 as urea (46.4% N).
The optimum N dose, worked out from the quadratic response equation, w
ith mulching was 230 kg ha-1 and without mulching, 241 kg ha-1. At opt
imum rates, yield response per kg of applied N was 328 kg with mulchin
g and 263 kg without mulching. Mulching increased the N uptake and the
apparent recovery of applied N by the crop by improving the soil orga
nic carbon by 0.08% and decreasing the soil bulk density by 0.06 g cm-
3, compared to no mulching. The concentration of NO3(-)-N in the upper
soil layer in both experiments increased due to trash mulching, compa
red to trash burning and no mulching.