Straw mulching with inorganic nitrogen fertilizer reduces soil CO2 and N2O emissions and improves wheat yield

Nitrogen fertilization significantly increases greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission, when applied from inorganic or organic sources. Minimizing GHGs from agroecosystems without compromising crop yield for stabilization of green production systems remains a challenge. Being an integral component of wheat production technology, the nitrogen (N) application deems to be indispensable. Thus, to reduce the application of N fertilizer and keep in view the minimization of GHGs emission, without compromising soil fertility and wheat production, field experiments were performed with treatments included maize straw mulch (S1: 0, S2: 4500, S3: 9000 kg ha−1) and nitrogen fertilizer (N1: 0, N2: 192 and N3: 240 kg ha−1) during 2015–17. Results showed that the cumulative CO2 and N2O emission from 9000 kg ha−1 of maize straw mulch with 192 kg N ha−1 (S3N2) significantly decreased by 0.67% and 33.7%, respectively, averaged over two years compared with that of 9000 kg ha−1 of maize straw mulch with 240 kg N ha−1 (S3N3). Likewise, the average soil moisture content significantly increased by 10% and 10.6% for S3N2 and S3N3 treatments at 0–10 cm soil depth, respectively, compared to S1N1. Similarly, the S3N2 and S3N3 treatments had lowered the soil temperature by 0.2 and 0.1 °C, respectively, over S1N1 in wheat grown fields. The grain yield of wheat was increased by 45% and 45% under S3N3 and S3N2 treatments than S1N1, respectively. The S3N2 treatment was more economical than S3N3 for wheat crop. Therefore, maize straw mulch (S3) combined with 20% less N fertilizer (N2) from commercial source were considered as a viable production technology to improve crop yield, and reduce soil CO2 and N2O emissions.