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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Sustainable Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #405529
Research Project: Development of Best Management Practices, Tools, and Technologies to Optimize Water Use Efficiency and Improve Water Distribution in the Lower Mississippi River Basin

Location: Sustainable Water Management Research

Title: Soybean productivity unaffected under zero-tillage soils in the Mississippi Delta

Author
item Anapalli, Saseendran
item Mubvumba, Partson
item PINNAMANENI, SRINVISAS - Colorado State University
item Reddy, Krishna

Submitted to: American Society of Agronomy Meetings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/31/2023
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Conservation agriculture (CA) with minimum to zero-tillage (ZT) soil management has been widely known for its benefits in protecting the soil environment from wind and water erosion and consequent losses of soil-water-environmental quality. Uncertainty in farm production outcomes when ZT practices were adopted in location-specific, often contrasting soils and climates pose challenges in farmer-adoption of this practice. Addressing this challenge, a four-year study (2019 to 2022) in farm scale (~ 1.25 ha) plots focused on comparing soybean yield returns and soil health benefits of a ZT system against a conventional tillage (CT) system in silt loam soil. The plots were maintained under ZT and CT under corn for over eleven years preceding the experiment. Compared to CT, soil bulk density (BD), field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs), total mineralizable nitrogen (TMN), and organic carbon (C) increased in the top 15 cm soil under ZT. Higher BD were also noticed in the 15-30 cm soil depth. There were no significant differences between ZT and CT practices in water stable aggregate stability for >0.25 – 0.5,>0.5 – 1.0,>1.0 – 2.0, and >2. 0 – 4 mm aggregate classes. While the higher BD under ZT can potentially restrict plant root expansion, the beneficial effects of C, TMN, and Kfs appear to make up for those adverse effects culminating in comparable grain yield returns across the tillage systems. Over four years, soybean harvested from ZT (5440 kg ha-1) was 1% less than CT (5480 kg ha-1). The study revealed that adopting the ZT system can potentially increase net returns by reducing tillage-associated expenses without loss in grain yields in this region while garnering the natural resource conservation benefits of CA soil management.