A decade of conservation agriculture in intensive cereal systems: Transitioning to soil resilience and stable yield trends in a climate crisis.

Climate change jeopardizes the food security gains achieved in India since the Green Revolution, especially by impacting the productivity of the rice-wheat system in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a region that serves as the 'breadbasket' of South Asia. In this study, we characterized the potential of long-term conservation agriculture (CA) based management practices (i.e.

Biological nitrogen fixation and prospects for ecological intensification in cereal-based cropping systems.

The demand for nitrogen (N) for crop production increased rapidly from the middle of the twentieth century and is predicted to at least double by 2050 to satisfy the on-going improvements in productivity of major food crops such as wheat, rice and maize that underpin the staple diet of most of the world's population. The increased demand will need to be fulfilled by the two main sources of N supply - biological nitrogen (gas) (N) fixation (BNF) and fertilizer N supplied through the Haber-Bosch processes. BNF provides many functional benefits for agroecosystems.

Steady agronomic and genetic interventions are essential for sustaining productivity in intensive rice cropping.

Intensive systems with two or three rice ( L.) crops per year account for about 50% of the harvested area for irrigated rice in Asia. Any reduction in productivity or sustainability of these systems has serious implications for global food security.