Evaluation of cropping system under different management practices in north-western plain zone under irrigated condition
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Date
2021-04-05
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CCSHAU, Hisar
Abstract
The rice-wheat cropping systems of western Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) supports the bovine as well as human population since past several decades by producing major food grains. But in past few decades, conventional monotonous rice-wheat system coupled with ever increasing population pressure led to the state of ground water depletion, soil fatigue and diminishing profitability which resulted social, economicand nutrition insecurity. Under the growing climate change scenariothe current crop production is characterized by low factor productivity and modest profitability. To address thecurrent challengeconservation agriculture (CA)-based management practices were evaluated to enhance and stabilize the cropyields and to improve farm profits and balance nutrition in diet. Therefore, a field experiment on “Evaluation of cropping system under different management practices in north-western plain zone under irrigated condition” was conducted at CIMMYT- CSSRI Research platform Karnal, Haryana, India during 2018 to 2020. In thisseven scenarioswere included; Sc1- Puddled transplanted rice (PTR) followed by (fb) Conventional tillage wheat (CTW) without residue(-R); Sc2- Conventional tillage direct seeded rice (CTDSR) fb Zero tillage wheat (ZTW) with residue(+R); Sc3- Zero tillage direct seeded rice (ZTDSR) fb ZTW fb Zero tillage mungbean (ZTMb) (+R); Sc4- Maize on permeant beds (PBM) fb mustard on permanent beds (PBMu) fb mungbean on permeant beds (PBMb) with residue (all crop residue removed before 2018); Sc5- PBM fb wheat on permanent beds (PBW) fb PBMb (+R); Sc6– Soybean on permanent beds (PBS) fb PBW fb PBMb (+R); Sc7- Pigeonpea on permanent beds (PBP) fb PBW fb PBMb (+R).
CA-based management practices (Sc2 to Sc7) significantly improved the system productivity and profitability while enhancing the resource use efficiency. Based 2' years mean, system yield (rice equivalent) and net returns of individual scenarios were increased by 6.1, 5.5, 40.8, 32.3, 6.2 and 1.3 % and 11.7, 4.9, 60.1, 57.5, 23.9 and 14.0% under Sc2, Sc3, Sc4, Sc5, Sc6 and Sc7, respectively compared to Sc1(farmers‘ practice; FP).Overall, CA-based management practices (mean of Sc2-Sc7) increased the system yield by ~15%, net return by 29%, and protein yield by 29% with 53% less irrigation water and 118% more energy use efficiency compared to CT-based system (Sc1). CA-based, maize-wheat/mustard (mean of Sc4 and Sc5) and soybean-wheat (Sc6) system recorded higher grain yield by 36.5 and 6.2% and net return by 58.8 and 23.9% compared to Sc1, respectively. CA-based management practices increased the protein yield by 29% (2 years‘ mean) compared to Sc1.Soil organic carbon, soil aggregate stability, infiltration rate and available nutrients was improved with CA-based management practices. Maize-wheat/mustard-mungbean and soybean-wheat-mungbean cropping system is an alternative to rice-wheat cropping system in IGP. CA-based management practicessystem productivity and profitability through minimizing adverse effects of associated climatic risks by improving adaptive capacity.