Climate Smart Agriculture practices improve soil organic carbon pools, biological properties and crop productivity in cereal-based systems of North-West India

Intensive tillage coupled with crop residue burning in rice-wheat (RW) system is a serious issue that causes soil degradation and environmental pollution. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the main indicators of soil health and system's sustainability. Zero-tillage has been widely recommended as an alternative for improving carbon sequestration in soil under different ecologies. But the SOC sequestration is very inconsistent and varied as it depends on the crop management practices. This study was performed in the western Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) of India where RW system contributes 40% to the total country's food grain basket; however there exists issue of its sustainability because of declining SOC coupled with open field crop residue burning. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of…