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Biochar and leguminous cover crops as an alternative to summer fallowing for soil organic carbon and nutrient management in the wheat-maize-wheat cropping system under semiarid climate

  • Soils, Sec 4 • Ecotoxicology • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Cereal-based cropping systems under arid and semiarid climates have typically low soil organic matter and fertility, and natural fallowing during summer gap could have negative effects on soil quality and health. We tested an alternative approach of using biochar and leguminous cover crops to replace natural summer fallowing of about 75 days in the wheat-maize-wheat cropping systems with a view of studying the effects on legume productivity, soil organic carbon (C), and soil nutrients over the 2-year experiments.

Materials and methods

The two-factor completely randomized block experimental design consisted of biochar, developed from acacia tree biowaste and applied at 0, 5, and 10 t ha−1 rate, and leguminous cover crops (cowpea, mungbean, and sesbania) with natural fallow were used to test soil fertility and crop productivity. Treatments were laid out following completely randomized block design and each treatment had three replicates leading to 36 experimental plots in total. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to find the relationships between plant and soil variables. Regression analysis was performed to study correlations of total organic C with soil available N, P, and K contents.

Results and discussion

Results from the 2-year experiment indicated that plant height, pods plant−1, grains pod−1, 1000-grain weight, fresh and dry biomass, and grain yield were higher at 10 t ha−1 biochar rate; however, the nodule density plant−1 of cowpea and sesbania was the highest at 5 t ha−1 biochar. Integrating legumes with biochar further conserved and improved soil C which significantly positively correlated with soil fertility indicators. Despite linear positive changes in soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC) with biochar rate, increase was minor and was never significant. We observed significant positive relationships of biochar rate with soil organic C contents and soil N and K contents whereas soil P contents were higher at 5 t ha−1 biochar rate. However, not always significant difference between 5 and 10 t ha−1 biochar rates for legume and soil productivity suggested flexibility of choosing the biochar application rate.

Conclusions

Our study emphasized that adopting integrative biochar-leguminous cover crop fallowing to replace natural summer fallowing could yield beneficial effects in terms of conserving soil organic carbon, sustaining soil fertility, and improving soil quality. In addition to positive supplementary effects on the succeeding crops, this approach also allows at utilizing and recycling on-farm biowaste more efficiently and environment friendly.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21477105), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2019FZA6009), and the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan under project no. 5140/2015-17.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nuclear Agricultural Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Muhammad Arif, Kashif Akhtar & Haiyan Wang

  2. Department of Agronomy, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, 25000, Pakistan

    Muhammad Arif, Talha Jan, Kashif Akhtar, Salman Ali & Shahen Shah

  3. Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, 25000, Pakistan

    Ikramullah, Ishaq A. Mian & Khadim Muhammad Dawar

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Government College University Faisalabad, Allama Iqbal Road, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Muhammad Riaz

  5. Department of Agriculture, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, 23200, Pakistan

    Fazal Jalal

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  1. Muhammad Arif
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Arif, M., Ikramullah, Jan, T. et al. Biochar and leguminous cover crops as an alternative to summer fallowing for soil organic carbon and nutrient management in the wheat-maize-wheat cropping system under semiarid climate. J Soils Sediments 21, 1395–1407 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02866-y

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