Evaluation of Soil Physical and Chemical Properties under Rice-based Cropping System in Alfisols of Northern Hill Region of ChhattisgarhCharacters of Soybean (Glycine max L.)

Sustaining soil health is an important task under changing scenario of climate and intensive cultivation. Therefore, a study was conducted on the Alfisols under rice-based cropping system of Korea district of Chhattisgarh in order to assess soil physical and chemical properties and to identify sustainable rice-based cropping” system in the area. Six “most prominent cropping sequences were” identified <em>i.e. </em>rice-wheat (RW), rice-chickpea (RC), rice-field pea (RP), rice-mustard (RM), rice-linseed (RL) and rice- fallow (RF). Stratified-random “soil sampling was done from the 10% of the total villages in the” district. In each village, “based on the cropping” system, soil “samples were taken from <em>Alfisols. </em>Soil physical and chemical properties have been evaluated among cropping” system using descriptive statistics. Among the cropping systems BD was higher in RW cropping” system, compared to RC, RP and RL. Other soil physical properties <em>i.e. </em>porosity, AWHC, “SMC and MWD were higher for soils under” rice-legume (RC and RP) cropping systems, than that of soils under” RW, RM and RF. Similarly soil chemical properties such as” OC available N, P, K, S and micronutrient Zn and B were found to be higher for soils under” rice-legume cropping system (RC and RP), compared to soils under” RW, RM and RF. From the descriptive statistics results it is concluded, that soil properties were sustain better for rice-legume cropping system (RC and RP) than that of soils under RW, RM, RL, and RF.