Increasing Earthworm Activity: A Potential Mechanism for the Rotational Benefits of Oilseed Rape on Rice in No-Tillage Paddy Fields

Min Huang* and Yingbin Zou

Southern Regional Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain and Oil Crops (CICGO), Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China

*Corresponding Author: Min Huang, Department of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China.

Received: January 12, 2018; Published: March 26, 2018

Citation: Min Huang and Yingbin Zou. “Increasing Earthworm Activity: A Potential Mechanism for the Rotational Benefits of Oilseed Rape on Rice in No-Tillage Paddy Fields". Acta Scientific Agriculture 2.4 (2018).

  Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population. Improving rice yield is vitally important to meet the growing demand for food that will result from population growth and economic development. But on the other hand, it is also important to minimize the dependence on external inputs for rice production to reduce adverse environmental impacts, including increased greenhouse gas emissions, soil acidification, surface water eutrophication, and biodiversity loss.

  Well-planned crop rotations, as compared to continuous monoculture systems, can be expected to reduce the dependence on external inputs through promoting nutrient cycling efficiency, effective use of natural resources, maintenance of the long-term productivity of the land, control of diseases and pests, and consequently increasing crop yields and sustainability of production systems. Rice-oilseed rape rotation is a major rice-based cropping system in China. Our previous study suggests that long-term rice-oilseed rape rotation can increase soil fertility and hence reduce the dependence on external nitrogen inputs and adverse impacts on the environment. This supports the viewpoint that oilseed rape is an excellent and sustainable rotation crop for cereals.

Copyright: © 2018 Min Huang and Yingbin Zou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.