Impact of No-tillage on Rice Yield and Some Soil Properties in Tropical Flooded Transplanting Lowland Rice Cultivation

Abstract

Flooded transplanting rice with full tillage is a traditional rice production technique in Thailand. However, the intensity of soil tillage increased operation costs and affected soil fertility especially on soil organic carbon (SOC). No-till is widely used as a system to improve soil properties and reduce operation costs. However, the effectiveness of no-till to flooded transplanting rice needs further investigation. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of rice yield response and the change of soil properties under flooded transplanting rice conditions after using a no-tillage system. A field experiment was conducted over three years on Typic Plinthaquults (Phen series) with 4 treatments including conventional tillage (CT), conventional tillage with green manure incorporation (CTG), no-till (NT) and no-till with green manure application (NTG). NT and NTG treatments showed a significant increase in SOC, soil total nitrogen, Bray II P and exchangeable K compared with CT. Under flooded transplanting rice, no-till had a negative effect on rice yield in the first 2 years. However, the NT yield significantly increased in the third crop and was comparable to the CT yield. Adequate application of green manure to no-till could improve yield reduction at early year of no-till adoption. The results in this paper reveal that no-till is more effective to use in a flooded transplanting rice system which improves soil properties and rice yield.