Productivity and soil fertility of the rice–wheat system in the High Ganges River Floodplain of Bangladesh is influenced by the inclusion of legumes and manure

Productivity of the rice–wheat system is critical to the food security of Bangladesh. However, many concerns about the sustainability of this system exist because of low soil organic matter (SOM). In this context, an experiment was performed in the agro-ecological zone of the High Ganges River Floodplain (HGRF) at the Regional Wheat Research Centre (RWRC), Rajshahi of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) over two consecutive years, 2009–2010 and 2010–2011. The experiment evaluated the productivity and changes in soil fertility of the wheat–rice cropping sequence as influenced by an integrated plant nutrition system (IPNS) and through the inclusion of legume crops. Two factors were considered: cropping sequence and IPNS treatment. A legume crop was fitted to the existing wheat–rice sequence,…