Effect of natural farming components on yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and physico-chemical properties of soil under Bundelkhand region

Introduction

Cicer arietinum (chickpea) is one of the most significant rabi pulse crops globally, predominantly cultivated in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa [1,17] . India ranks as the leading producer of chickpea, contributing about 65.2% of the total cultivated area and 65.4% of global production [2] . Unlike major cereals such as wheat and rice, legume cultivation in India is largely undertaken by small and marginal farmers who possess limited resources [3] ; notably, 43.6% of chickpea growers fall under the smallholder category [4] . Conventional agricultural practices often depend on the use of costly agrochemicals, whereas natural farming depend on naturally derived inputs of plant and animal origin, including cow dung, urine, and crop residues. This waste-to-wealth approach helps lower production costs and enhances resource recycling. Moreover, earlier findings have indicated that organically managed soils can suppress plant and animal pathogens [5] . Thus, promoting awareness of natural farming among resource-poor farmers could offer a low-input, economically viable alternative. The increasing human population is exerting rising pressure on vigorous natural resources, including soil, water, and biodiversity and this stress is expected to intensify further in the coming years. In addition, climate change is compelling a transformation of conventional agricultural systems. Therefore, organic farming has gained prominence as an essential approach to ensure the production of safe and nutritious food while promoting longterm agricultural sustainability [6,7,17] . The natural farming is a natural way of farming without any capital investment. It basically soles use of rich natural resources which ancient agriculture fully relied. Expenditure on purchased inputs is completely excluded in this system. If some cost is incurred by any chance, it is compensated by the profitable production. In the present context of sharp increase of production cost and stagnation in production rate coupled with environmental footprints associated with chemical fertilizers/pesticides. Natural farming is gaining momentum as it rejuvenates soil health for sustainable crop production through diversification, microbial activities, nutrient recycling, beneficial biological interactions. Besides, in rain fed areas where green revolution holds less significance, Zero Budget Natural Farming can be a promising option under uncertainty of weather. It is an extreme form of low external input sustainable agriculture, where all the inputs are locally available and output one farming system is mostly used as input in other farming system. In this context, a comparative evaluation of conventional and natural farming systems was conducted using chickpea as the test crop. The study aimed to assess natural farming systems in terms of soil health, grain yield, and agronomic performance within the distinctive agroecological conditions of the rainfed regions of Bundelkhand region of India.

Materials and Methods

The present investigation was carried out at Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (U.P.) during two concentrical rabi season 2023-24 and 2024-25 under typical rainfed agroclimatic conditions. The field experiments were carried out with twelve treatments and five replications laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD). The experimental site is situated in the semi-arid condition, at 25°27'31" N latitude and 78°34'47" E longitude and 258 m above mean sea level (MSL). The experiment comprised of 12 treatments viz., T 1 -Leaves of Madhuca indica, T 2 -Leaves of Dalbergia sisso, T 3 -Leaves of Azadirchta indica, T 4 -Leaves of Lantana camera, T 5 -Leaves of Duranta erecta, T 6 -Leaves of Cynodon dactylon, T 7 -Leaves of Cyperus rotundus, T 8 -Leaves of Saccharum officinarum, T 9 -Leaves of pulse straw, T 10 -Adequate control, T 11 -No Mulching and T 12 -FYM Impact. The Chickpea JG-16 variety was sown in month of October during both cropping sessions. Prior to sowing, composite soil samples (0-15 cm depth) were collected and analyzed for initial physico-chemical properties following standard analytical procedures. The crop from each net plot area was harvested separately, sun-dried, and threshed manually. Grain yield was recorded and converted into kg ha⁻¹ after adjusting seed moisture.

The representative soil samples were collected from experimental plots at 0-15 cm depth using a soil auger after the harvesting of crop within the treatments in month of April 2024 and 2025. The composite soil samples were air dried in a shed house and grained with wooden mortal and petal and passed through a 2 mm sieve for laboratory analysis. The soil samples were analyzed for standard laboratory protocols. The recorded data were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) appropriate for Randomized Block Design as described by [8] . Treatment means were compared using the Critical Difference (CD) test at 5% level of significance.

Results and Discussion

Chickpea yield (q/ha) Results revelled that the mean data of chickpea yield was significantly influenced by different NFC, as depicted in the table 1. The significant variation among treatments was observed during both years of the study, indicating the strong impact of NFC on chickpea yield. Among all treatments, T 12 recorded the highest grain yield followed by T 9 , T 8 , and T 3 . However, the lowest grain yields were observed under T 6 and T 7 . The crop residue mulches reduce evaporation losses and maintain favourable soil temperature, thereby minimizing moisture stress during critical growth stages. Enhanced nutrient mineralization and improved root growth under mulched conditions further supported higher yield formation. Similar increases in chickpea yield under residue mulching have been reported by [9,10] , who attributed yield improvement to better soil hydrothermal regimes. Chen et al. (2018) [11] and Li et al. (2018) [12,17] also reported enhanced crop productivity due to improved soil biological activity and nutrient cycling under organic mulches. Larkin (2020) [13] emphasized that organic amendments improve soil health and long-term productivity, whereas [14] and Zhou et al. (2022) [15] documented higher yields under residuebased sustainable farming systems.

The results presented in the table 2 show that the influence of different NFC on soil reaction (soil pH) and electrical conductivity during the cropping seasons of 2023-24 and 2024-25. Statistical analysis indicated that the differences among treatments were non-significant (NS) effect for both soil pH and EC. However, slight variations were observed among treatments. Results also revealed that the maximum soil pH (7.50) was recorded under T 8 (sugarcane leaves) and T 9 (pulse straw), while the minimum pH value (6.90) was observed under T 10 (adequate control). Results of EC was safer in limits or not change in the application of NFC during the both experimental years. The NFC increase microbial activity and soil organic carbon, which help stabilize soil reaction and prevent large fluctuations in soil pH. Similar findings were reported by Kumar et al. (2018) [9] and Sun et al. (2021) [14] , who observed that the application of organic residues and mulches-maintained soil pH within a narrow range while improving soil fertility. Similarly, Agrawal et al. (2022) [16] reported that organic mulching practices generally cause minimal changes in soil pH due to slow mineralization of organic materials and improved soil buffering capacity.

The results indicated that the application of different NFC influenced the soil organic carbon (SOC) content under chickpea cultivation during both experimental years (Table 3). The SOC content ranged from 0.37 to 0.48% in 2023-24 and 0.41 to 0.49% in 2024-25. During the first year, the highest SOC content (0.48%) was recorded under T 9 (pulse straw mulch), followed by T 1 (Madhuca indica leaves) and T 12 (FYM impact) with 0.44%, whereas the lowest value (0.37%) was observed under T 11 (no mulching). In the second year, a slight increase in SOC was observed across most treatments, where the maximum SOC (0.49%) was recorded under T 1 (Madhuca indica leaves), T 9 (pulse straw) and T 12 (FYM impact), while the lowest value (0.41%) was recorded under T 10 (adequate control) and T 11 (no mulching). The results evidently indicated that treatments involving organic residue mulching and farmyard manure contributed to relatively higher soil organic carbon compared to control treatments. This improvement in SOC may be attributed to the continuous addition and decomposition of organic residues which enhance soil organic matter content and microbial activity. Similar results were reported by Kumar et al. (2018) [9] and Sun et al.

(2021) [14] who observed that the application of organic residues and mulches significantly improves soil organic carbon and overall soil fertility. Likewise, Zhou et al. (2022) [15] reported that organic residue mulching plays an important role in enhancing soil carbon accumulation and maintaining soil health under sustainable agricultural systems. Overall, treatments involving organic residues and FYM under natural farming practices improved soil nutrient availability, which may be attributed to the gradual decomposition of organic materials, enhanced microbial activity, and mineralization of nutrients that increase soil fertility and nutrient cycling [9,14,15,17] .

References

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