Assessing Soil and Management Quality Indexes in A Rural Watershed Under Long‐Term No‐Tillage in Southern Brazil
Bibliographic Data
Soil quality assessment is essential to detect management failures and prevent land degradation in agricultural systems. No‐tillage system (NTS) is a conservation management widely adopted in Brazil, but its effectiveness is compromised when adherence to the core principles of crop rotation and ground cover is not complete, and basic conservation practices such as terracing are not adopted. This study applied two complementary tools in a small watershed under long‐term NTS in southern Brazil: the Participatory No‐Tillage Quality Index (PQI no‐till ), based on soil and management indicators obtained alongside with farmers, and the Soil Quality Index Fertbio (SQI Fertbio ), which integrates chemical and biological attributes responsive to management. The use of both is gradually increasing in different calibration regions. The PQI no‐till revealed low crop diversity, insufficient residue maintenance, and lack of terracing, resulting in lower conservation scores. In turn, SQI Fertbio indicated overall good chemical quality and was able to detect signs of degradation in areas recently disturbed by conventional tillage, through β‐glucosidase activity. Correlation analyses showed positive associations between NTS adoption time, enzymatic activity, and nutrient cycling, emphasizing the benefits of continuous NTS management. The combined application of PQI no‐till and SQI Fertbio proved complementary: while PQI no‐till provides a rapid and low‐cost diagnosis of management quality, SQI Fertbio offers a detailed assessment of soil conditions. This integration enhances the early detection of degradation and supports adaptive management strategies, contributing to the long‐term sustainability of NTS systems at the watershed scale
Conservation Agriculture · Cover crop · Crop Rotation · Soil conservation · Soil Quality · Soil retrogression and degradation · Sustainability · Watershed · Watershed Management · Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics · Soil erosion and sediment transport · Soil Management and Crop Yield
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