A field experiment (2017–2019) was undertaken to study the short-term effects of tillage [zero tillage (ZT), conventional tillage (CT), and alternate tillage (AT)] and sources of organic and mineral fertilizer N [NS0—control, NS1—recommended doses of fertilizer (160:50:100), NS2—recommended level of fertilizer and crop residue (6 Mg·ha−1), NS3—75% of recommended N as fertilizer (120 kg·ha⁻1) and 25% N (40 kg·ha⁻1) as farm yard manure (FYM), and NS4—75% of recommended N as fertilizer and 25% N as vermicompost] on yield and soil quality under a maize–rice rotation system. Among N sources, NS4 produced the highest maize grain yield (10 Mg·ha⁻1). Residual effects of N sources on mean rice grain yield were evident only in crop residue (NS2)- and vermicompost (NS4)-treated plots. After the harvest of two complete maize–rice crop cycles, higher content of dehydrogenase activity (DHA) and urease activity (UR) were observed in the soil under AT as compared to ZT and CT at 0–10 cm (p < 0.05). Similarly, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) also recorded positive changes at 0–10 cm soil depth, especially in NS2 and NS4 treatments. AT resulted in the highest total soil carbon (TOC) (8.10 g·kg−1), followed by CT (6.73 g·kg−1) and ZT (5.98 g·kg−1). Fertilizer N treatments, however, influenced the NO3-N accumulation beyond the root zone, where crop residue-based (NS2) fertilizer N treatment resulted in the highest NO3-N (32.52 kg·ha−1), and the lowest NO3-N (14.48 kg·ha−1) was observed in the FYM-based (NS3) treatment. Therefore, the practice of alternate tillage and integration of vermicompost (40 kg·N·ha−1) and chemical fertilizer (total 120 kg·ha−1) sources should be mostly recommended to farmers in the Terai region of India.

Soil acidity is also the major problem of the red and lateritic soils. Acidification causes the loss of base cations and increases aluminium saturation and as a result, decrease in crop yields. Among the different nature of soil acidity, pH dependent acidity (pHDA) and total potential acidity (TPA) are very important in relation to nutrient supplying capacity of the soil. To study depth-wise and land use-wise variation of pH dependent acidity (pHDA) and total potential acidity (TPA) and its relationship with soil properties, fifty-four representative soil samples were collected from three depths (viz., 0-20 cm, 20-40 cm and 40-60 cm) from 6 various land uses viz., forest land, cultivated rice land, cultivated ricepotato land, orchard land, pasture land and fallow land of Birbhum district of lateritic zone of West Bengal. The soil samples were analyzed for pHDA and TPA and soil properties like pH, EC, organic C, bulk density, particle density, available N, P 2 O 5 and K 2 O using standard methodology. It was observed that there was significant depth-wise and land usewise variation of pHDA and TPA. In all the land uses, pHDA and TPA was decreased with depth. The mean pHDA irrespective of soil depths was highest in cultivated rice-potato land and lowest in pasture land. The mean TPA irrespective of soil depths was highest in cultivated rice-potato land and lowest in pasture land. TPA and pHDA were significantly positively and negatively correlated with OC and BD of soil respectively.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the key indicator of soil quality and overall sustainability of the environment. Information of OC in soil is very important as it influences chemical, physical and biological soil properties. In order to assess the difference in SOC content along depth and land uses and relationship of SOC with soil properties, a total of 54 soil samples were collected from 3 soil depths and 6 land uses of lateritic soil of Birbhum district of West Bengal. The soil physical properties like bulk density, particle density, sand, silt and clay content; chemical properties like pH, EC, OC, available N, P2O5, K2O, S were estimated following standard procedure. Results exhibited significant variation of SOC with soil depths and land uses. There was decrease in SOC value with increase in soil depth for all studied land uses. The SOC value was highest and lowest forest and fallow land respectively for all the soil depths. Unrelatedly of soil depths, forest land and fallow land recorded highest and lowest SOC respectively. But, unrelatedly of land uses, 0-20 cm and 40-60 cm soil depth noted highest and lowest SOC respectively. The value of SOC due to combined effect of depth and land uses was noted highest and lowest in 0-20 cm depth of forest and 40-60 cm depth of orchard land respectively. The soil pH, BD, sand and silt content exhibited significant negative correlation with SOC and available K2O and S and clay disclosed significantly positive correlation with SOC.