[en] Measurement of soil water retention capacity by the conventional pressure plate technique always gives a substantial view of soil porosity distribution. The structural orientation is observed in the beginning (higher water retention at 9.8 to 98 hPa water head pressure indicates greater proportion of macroporosity) of the soil moisture characteristic curve obtained from the water retention measurement. Since, tillage practices generally increase soil porosity, the correlation between soil hydraulics and porosity distribution would expect to be different for different tillage systems. In general, macroporosity increase with the adoption of conservative tillage or no tillage system but the changes can be varied with the seasonal variation. In our study, winter ploughing retains more water at the range of 9.8 to 98 hPa than Strip tillage, No-till residues in and No-till residues out. So, we can conclude that there is certainly increase in macroporosity in ploughing than other conservation practices of reduced tillage and no tillage.
