Resource conservation technologies in rice- wheat cropping system

Sudhir Rajput
Division of Agronomy Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi 110 012
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Outline
Introduction Emerging challenges in RWCS

RCTs in Rice-wheat system

Research finding Conclusions
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Introduction
Rice-wheat (RW) system 13.5 m ha area in South Asia Extending across IGP of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

RW contribute >80% of total cereal production Critically important to employment & food security for millions of rural families
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Rice-Wheat System in the South Asia

Country Area (m ha) Area (%) Contribution (%) in total cereal production

Rice
India Pakistan 10.3 2.3 23 72

Wheat
40 19 85 92

Bangladesh
Nepal Total

0.5
0.6 13.7

5
35

85
84

100
71

(Yadav et al.,1998)
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Rice-wheat cropping system in India

RWCS contributes about 31% of total food grain production of country Contributes about 90% rice & 60% wheat to PDS and thus considered as back bone of countrys food security It has a capacity to produce 10-15 tonnes of cereal grain/ha /yr

Decline in SOM Climate change Multinutrient deficiency

Environmental pollution

Emerging Challenges

Reduced Biodiversity

Receding water table Build up of pest

Declining factor productivity

Resource conservation technologies (RCTs)

Resource conservation technologies are the practice, when followed results in saving of energy, cost and also reduced the environmental pollution over the conventional practices.

Prospects of RCTs in rice- wheat cropping system

Reduction in cost of production Saving in water and nutriens Increased productivity Improvement in soil health Reduced incidence of weeds Environmental benefits Resource improvement
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RCTs for rice

LCC

SRI

AWD

Direct seeded rice

Brown Manuring

Aerobic rice
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System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

Raise output by 50% or more

Significant reductions in: Seed requirements -- by 80-90% Water requirements -- by 25-50% Agrochemicals little or no need Any varieties of seeds can be used Costs of production lower by 10-25% Farmer incomes -- rise by 50-100% Favorable environmental impacts

Direct seeded rice

Rice is sown directly in dry soil (dry seeding) or wet soil (wet seeding), and irrigation is given to keep the soil sufficiently moist for good plant growth, but the soil is never flooded.
Methods of direct seeding
Dry seeding

Wet seeding

dry seed

sprouted seed
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Brown Manuring Co-culturing of Sesbania with rice for 25-30 days and then knocking down with 2,4D ester

Leaf colour chart(LCC)

- A simple handy, ever-lasting pocket tool, made up high quality plastic material and cosists of 6 strips of different shades of green from pale green to dark green - Easy to use and inexpensive alternative to chlorophyll meter Measures leaf color intensity which is related to leaf N status

- Helps farmers determine the right time of N application

AWD in rice
Intermittent irrigation Flooding field with shallow water depth and then waiting for a few days after the floodwater has dissipated before irrigating again. AWD reduces seepage and deep drainage losses IGP showing large irrigation water savings (15 40% of the applied water or up to 840mm) with AWD in (PTR) in comparison with continuous flooding (Tuong et al.,1994)
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Aerobic rice
High-yielding rice grown in non-puddled, aerobic soils under irrigation and high external inputs. Irrigation is applied when the soil becomes dry, and the quantity of applied water is sufficient to bring the soil to field capacity. Aerobic rice should be responsive to high inputs (water, nutrients) to reach high yields under non-flooded conditions.

RCTs for wheat

Zero tillage

FIRBS

System intensification

Surface seeding

SWI

Crop residue management17

Zero till drill

Sowing without field preparation It has got knife type tynes, which are used for cutting the soil as narrow slit to place seed and fertilizer at appropriate depth. Can sow about 1.5 acre in one hour. It can save field preparation costs to the extent of Rs. 2000-2500/- per ha. It is recommended to use the machine at a little higher soil moisture as compared to conventional tillage. It can be used for crops like wheat, rice, soybean, greengram under tilled as well as non-tilled conditions
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Zero-Tillage : Astonishing Benefits

Timely planting of wheat Water saving 20-30% Energy saving 80% Increased fertilizers use Efficiency Decrease population of weeds Increase in yield 20%

Improving SOC, soil structure & microbial population

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Furrow irrigated raised bed system (FIRBS)

In this method, wheat is sown on raised beds accommodating 2-3 rows of wheat Bed planting reduces the population of Phalaris minor on the top of the bed Bed planting reduce the lodging Less seed and nutrient requirement by 25 % Good for irrigation as well as for drainage Less water requirement by 30- 40%

Furrow irrigated raised bed system (FIRBS)

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SYSTEM OF WHEAT INTENSIFICATION (SWI)

SWI for poor and marginal community estern IGP , avg productivity is verey low.
Sowing one seed/pocket in line, with 25 cm x 25cm spacing Use of conoweeder, immediately after irrigation reduced irrigation water during the vegetative growth period
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Surface seeding
Excess soil moisture lead delayed sowings after rice harvest in lowland areas Seeds of wheat broadcast (about a week before harvesting) or on wet/muddy soil (after rice harvest) Benefits: (i) Equipment not needed, (ii) Heavy textured soils are more suitable, (iii) Suitable for areas where land preparation is very difficult and costly, and often results in cloddy tilth Most simplest ZT systems, promoted in eastern India, Nepal & Bangladesh Precautions: (i) Key to success is correct soil moisture at sowing, (ii) Less moisture reduces germination, higher moisture can cause rotting of seeds, (iii) Rice straw mulch after seeding ensures better germination
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Surface seeding

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Crop Residue Management Techniques

The HappySeeder is a tractor-powered machine that cuts and lifts the rice straw, sows into the bare soil, and deposits the straw over the sown area as a mulch. The HappySeeder thus combines stubble mulching and seed and fertiliser drilling into a single pass Turbo seeder is an advance version of happy seeder Developed by PAU in collaboration with ACIAR Capable of seeding in to residue load of up to 8t/ha
(Sidhu et al., 2007)

Crop residues management by Happy Seeder

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CropResidues Beats the Terminal Heat in Wheat

0.5 -0.5
o ( Temperature difference C)

Days after sowing

Terminal heat

110 111 114 115 116 120 121 122 128 130 131 132 135 138 141 143 148 150 151 153

-1.5 -2.5 -3.5 -4.5 -5.5 -6.5 -7.5

Residue retained

Residue removed

( Jat et al.,2008)

Reduces unevenness of the field + 2 cm Improves crop stand and yields

Additional field area added ~3-6%

Increase water productivity by 35-45% Increase nutrient use efficiency by 15-25% Improve farm profitability (Jat et al., 200429 )

July to Oct

Nov to April

April to June

Dual-purpose summer legumes (DPSL)

Ssummer moongbean fits well in RWCS and can partly meet N requirements of RWCS. Summer moongbean has a potential to yield 0.5-1.5 t/ha pulse grain, leaves 30-50 kg N/ha as a residual N

Time and fuel consumption as influenced by tillage practices in wheat at farmers field
Tillage practices Tractor operation Time (hr/ha) Fuel (liters/ha) Time saving (%) Fuel saving (%)

Zero tillage

1.56

6.00

83.42

90.76

Conventional tillage (drill)

10

9.41

65.00

---

---

(Sharma et al., 2004)

Water productivity (kg grains /m3 ) as influenced by sowing methods (average of 6 years)

Sowing method

Days taken to maturity

Irrigation water applied (cm)

Rice yield (t/ha)

Water productivity (kg grains/m3)

DSR

113

148

6.82

0.461

TPR

125

174

7.59

0.436

( Gill et al. 2007)

Grain yield and irrigation water productivity of rice under different crop establishment techniques and land leveling practices
Crop Establishment Technique

Rice Grain yield (t/ha)

Total water use (m3/ha)

Water productivity (kg grain/m3 water) Laser Leveling Traditional Leveling

Laser Leveling

Traditional Leveling

Laser Leveling

Traditional Leveling

DSR (drill sown)

TPR (puddled) Mean

5.25

5.10

11200

12471

0.50

0.41

5.41

4.98

13718

15056

0.39

0.33

5.33

5.04

12459

13763

0.45

0.37

(Jat et al., 2006)35

Rice grain yield and N-use efficiency under different N management practices
N management practice Control Recommended N management LCC3 (no basal N) 80% N basal+ LCC3 Farmers practice (3 splits) Total N applied (kg/ha) 0 80 Grain yield (t/ha) Agronomic efficiency (kg grain/kg N) 13.9

2.75 3.86

80 104 100

4.18 3.62 3.74

17.9 8.4 9.9

(Jat and Sharma 2005)

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Wheat yield and productivity of wheat as influenced by planting pattern

Planting pattern Seed rate (kg/ha)
90

Leaf area index

Number of spikes/ m2
386.3

Grain water yield Productivity (kg/ha) (kg/m3)

4560 1.53

Bed 75 cm -3 rows B 90 cm -3 rows B 90 cm -4 rows Flat planting

4.23

80 90 100

5.32 4.66 5.06

445.7 384.7 426.1

6180 4890 5282

2.25 1.75 1.26

CD 0.05

--

0.26

19.84

343

0.11

(Kumar et al.,2010)

Emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and global warming potential of soil under different tillage treatments in wheat
CO2 kg/ha 1000 950 900 850 800 N2O g/ha GWP kg CO2 equi/ha

750
700 650 600 550 500

(Bhatia et al.,2012)

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Performance of RCT on yield, N, and WUE in RWCS

Treatment Mean crop yield t/ha
Rice Wheat

NUE kg grain/kg N uptake

Rice Wheat

WUE( kg grain/ m3water)

Rice Wheat

DSR

4.14

4.60

18.2

16.3

0.43

1.96

SRI
TPR Control
CD( P=0.05)

5.42
4.93 1.96 0.27 -

5.12
4.74 2.65 0.35 4.73 4.96 5.68 4.28 0.10

28.8
24.7 0

20.6
17.4 0.00 1.91

0.38
0.31 0.12 NS -

2.22
1.91 1.10 0.30 2.35 2.44 3.72 1.69 0.35
(Pal et al., 2012).

Sub plots ZT HS FIRB CWS

CD( P=0.05)

17.3 19.1 25.3 13.6 1.69

Effect of different RCTs in basmati rice (PRH 10)-wheat (HD 2894) cropping system at New Delhi

(Sharma et al., 2012)

Effect of dual purpose legumes in system productivity &profitability of RWCS

(Jat et al., 2012)

Crop productivity and soil fertility under crop residue incorporation

Treatment Rice Yield (t/ha) Wheat Total Soil fertility after 6 cycles OC (%) Av P (kg/ha) Av K (kg/ha)

R. S. Pura (06 years) CR without N 4.31 3.39 7.70 0.38 11.5 90

CR+ 10 kg N
CR+ 20 kg N

4.61
4.46

3.73
3.90

8.34
8.36

0.48
0.46

15.2
13.2

99
96

Kanpur (06 years)

CR without N
CR+ 10 kg N CR+ 20 kg N

4.41
4.56 4.69

4.03
4.36 4.14

8.44
8.92 8.83

0.29
0.36 0.34

21.4
25.8 26.5

188
200 198

Initial values of OC, Available P and available K were 0.43 and 0.10%, 10.4 and 18.4 kg/ha, and 91.5 and 218 kg/ha, respectively at R. S. Pura and Kanpur.

Yadav (1997)

Effect of crop residue management on the productivity of rice- wheat cropping system Treatment Rice Removed Burnt 4.02 4.14 Grain yield (t/ha) Wheat 4.09 4.14 4.57 Total 8.11 8.24 9.04

Incorporated 4.47

CD (P=0.05) 0.44

0.40

0.487

(Sharma,1998)

( Jat et al.,2008)

RCTs Advantages in RWCS

Saving of resources Yield advantage Increase in profitability : 60-85% : 3-17% : 11-45%

Increase in energy efficiency : 20-39% Lower production cost Saving in irrigation water : 8-27% : 4-38%

Reduced weeds
Improved soil health

: 10-48%
(Sharma and Jat 2006)
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RCTs save inputs like seed, fertilizer, water energy besides improving the crop productivity and environmental quality RCTs also improves the soil biological and chemical health physical,

RCTs are more effective in combinations rather than their individual application