Uncertainty of rainfall intensity and distribution in association with fast depletion of soil moisture content affects sowing time, seed germination, and establishment of lentil in rice-fallows. Mid-season and terminal droughts often retard growth and development of rainfed lentil by affecting its critical growth stages. Delayed sowing further accelerates the moisture stress. A two-year field experiment was conducted in split-plot design with tillage (ZT—zero tillage and CT—conventional tillage) in main plots and strategic K application methods (K0—no potassium, Kb—basal application, Kf—foliar application, and K(b+f)—basal-foliar application) in sub-plots using rainfed lentil (var. B-77) as test crop in rice-fallow system. We assessed the yield, physiological, and biochemical changes of lentil and soil biological properties owing to the different treatments and treatment combination imposed. ZT appeared to have provided ~ 15 and 23.5% higher yield than CT during 2015 and 2016, respectively. Under both tillage practices, Kf and K(b+f) were able to boost lentil yield effectively. Also, soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) were seen to improve satisfactorily under Kf and K(b+f). Kf under ZT accumulated greatest amount water in leaves (RLWC) and provided the highest leaf area index (LAI), whereas K(b+f) showed similar results in CT. Irrespective of tillage and growth stages, there happened to be a corresponding hike in chlorophyll as well as carbohydrate content by ~ 24.3 and 41.5%, respectively, under K(b+f). In addition, the enhanced concentration of phenol, free amino acids, and proline in lentil apparently suggested suffering of moisture stress in K0 under both the tillage practices over the years. We can conclude that practicing zero tillage along with foliar application of potassium could be an efficient way to escape soil moisture stress sustaining lentil productivity by regulating the biochemical properties and improving physiological aspects of plants at initial stages in rice-fallow system.

降雨强度和分布的不确定性以及土壤水分的快速消耗会影响播种时间，种子发芽和稻米中扁豆的形成。季中干旱和末期干旱通常会影响雨育小扁豆的关键生长阶段，从而阻碍其生长和发育。播种延迟会进一步加速水分胁迫。在分地设计中进行了为期两年的田间试验，在主要地块中采用耕作（ZT-零耕种和CT-常规耕种）和战略性钾肥施用方法（K0-无钾，Kb-基础施用，Kf-叶面施用，和K（b + f）-基叶应用）在使用雨养小扁豆（var。B-77）作为水稻休耕系统的试验作物。由于采用了不同的处理方法和处理组合，我们评估了小扁豆的产量，生理和生化变化以及土壤生物学特性。ZT似乎在2015年和2016年分别提供了比CT高15％和23.5％的产量。在两种耕作方式下，Kf和K（b + f）都能有效提高小扁豆产量。同样，在Kf和K（b + f）下，土壤微生物生物量碳（MBC）和脱氢酶活性（DHA）令人满意地提高。ZT下的Kf累积了最大量的叶片水分（RLWC），并提供了最高的叶面积指数（LAI），而K（b + f）在CT中显示出相似的结果。不论耕作和生育阶段如何，叶绿素和碳水化合物含量分别相应地分别升高了约24.3和41.5％，在K（b + f）下 另外，扁豆中苯酚，游离氨基酸和脯氨酸浓度的增加显然表明，多年来的两种耕作方式都使K0遭受水分胁迫。我们可以得出结论，在稻米休耕系统的初始阶段，通过调节生化特性和改善植物的生理状况，实践零耕作和叶面施用钾肥可能是逃脱土壤水分胁迫并维持小扁豆生产力的有效途径。