Assessment of Legume Crops' Impact on Soil Microbial Populations, Enzymatic Activities and Productivity under Rice-based Cropping Systems

Background: A long-term experiment on legume crops, integrated with various rice-based cropping systems, was initiated in the 2019-20 agricultural year under the All India Coordinated Research Project. This experiment is being conducted at the research farm of the Department of Agronomy, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology (ANDUAT), Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. The present study focuses on legume crops and was carried out during the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons. Methods: The present investigation was conducted with ten treatments: T1-rice-wheat-fallow; T2-rice-wheat-green gram; T3- rice-french bean-green gram; T4-rice-gram-cowpea; T5-rice-mustard-green gram; T6-rice-linseed-black gram; T7-rice-berseem-sudan grass; T8-rice-oat-maize+cowpea; T9-rice-cauliflower-okra; and T10-rice-potato-cowpea (vegetable). Result: The rice-frenchbean-greengram cropping sequence consistently outperformed other sequences in terms of grain and straw yields, biological yield and soil microbial activity. The inclusion of legumes and their residues significantly enhanced both yields and soil health, leading to improved microbial populations and enzymatic activities, particularly dehydrogenase and urease.