Furrow tillage reduces soil carbon loss and enhances microbial metabolism

With increasing global carbon loss from agricultural fields, agricultural practices should be monitored with proper regulatory measures. To address three problems of minimising carbon loss, optimising soil fertility and enhancing soil microbiota together, this study has developed a new innovative "Furrow tillage" approach that affords a balance between conventional and conservative tillage. Based on two years of trials in rice fields at multiple sites, this practice has justifications from agronomy, geochemistry, crop physiology, and molecular microbiology. Furrow tillage illustrated low carbon loss, similar to no-tillage, while retaining high nutrient bioavailability, similar to deep tillage. Microbial diversity, molecular responses and metabolic activities showed that furrow tillage induced microbial interactions while allowing a better entrapment of carbon dioxide in the soil. The study used CO2 flux, spatial distribution, total and available elemental analysis, plant ultra-structural observations, microbial metagenomics, high-throughput sequencing and molecular modelling to establish an optimal soil-crop quality, microbial maintenance and reduce carbon loss through furrow tillage practice.