Effect of Cropping System on Physical Properties of Clay Soil Under Intensive Rice Cultivation

Abstract

Cropping systems are thought to alter soil quality in paddy rice fields. This study was conducted to quantify the long-term effects of continuous crop production under different cropping systems with different crop rotations on physical properties of alluvial clay soil in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Soil samples were collected from four treatments: (i) traditional intensive rice monoculture with three rice crops per year (R-R-R); (ii) rotation with two rice crops and maize (R-M-R); (iii) rotation with two rice crops and mung bean (R-Mb-R); and (iv) rotation with one rice and two upland crops, mung bean and maize (R-Mb-M). We hypothesized that cropping systems with rotations of upland crops and their temporary beds improve the physical quality of paddy rice soil; hence, they are better options towards sustainable agriculture. Results show an improvement of soil physical quality for systems with two rice crops and one upland crop (R-M-R and R-Mb-R) and those with one rice crop with two upland crops (R-Mb-M) compared with intensive rice monoculture (R-R-R). This was translated in decreased bulk density and soil strength, increased soil organic carbon and total porosity, and higher aggregate stability index, plant-available water capacity, and Dexter's S index, especially at depths of 10-20 and 20-30 cm. The systems with different upland crops (maize or mung bean) showed similar high physical quality improvement. To maintain soil quality in future seasons, introducing a cropping system with at least one upland crop in rotation with rice is recommended.

Deeper tillage and root growth in annual rice-upland cropping systems result in improved rice yield and economic profit relative to rice monoculture

“…Different letters within columns denote statistically significant differences at P < 0.05 using Duncan's multiple range test; ns, no significant differences. contrary, the frequent puddling till 10-15 cm depth maintained the existing shallow plough pan (Linh et al, 2014), already starting from 10 cm downwards (Fig. 5).…”

“…Effects of different cropping systems with rotations of rice and upland crops like maize and mung bean on soil properties in the spring-summer season, i.e., the wet season when rice, maize, or mung bean are cultivated, have been previously reported (Linh et al, 2014(Linh et al, , 2015 for the Mekong Delta. They showed an improvement of soil bulk density, soil strength, soil porosity, soil organic carbon, C hydrolyzable for cropping system with rotations of rice and mung bean and/or maize grown on temporary beds compared to intensive rice monoculture.…”

Short‐term Impacts on Soil‐quality Assessment in Alternative Land Uses of Traditional Paddy Fields in Southern Brazil

“…Agriculture causes landform changes by affecting the natural biogeochemical cycles and may result in increased erosion, soil degradation and biota alteration (Cerdà et al ., ; Novara et al ., ; Galati et al ., ). Among the many crops cultivated worldwide according to various agricultural systems, rice is one of the most harmful because of the intense labour that is required and the modifications of the natural cycles that rice production causes (El‐Shahway et al ., ; Tran Ba et al ., ). The alteration and degradation that occur because of rice monocropping are even more important considering the environment in which such cultivation is performed: lowland areas, which play a significant role in regulating C dynamics (Ono et al ., ; Kukal et al ., ).…”

Temporal Variation of Hydro‐Physical Properties of Paddy Clay Soil under Different Rice‐Based Cropping Systems

“…Besides, the common practice of sampling at single times might therefore lead to erroneous conclusions when evaluating the effect of land management practices on hydro-physical soil properties (van Es et al, 1999). As for paddy heavy clay soils, despite the important role of cropping systems with different crop rotations on their hydro-physical properties (Linh et al, 2016), their temporal variation has not yet been studied. Understanding and correctly interpreting physical soil quality under different rotation-based cropping systems are important for the development of sustainable crop production systems.…”