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.

Precise irrigation water and nitrogen management improve water and nitrogen use efficiencies under conservation agriculture in the maize-wheat systems.

A 3-year field experiment was setup to address the threat of underground water depletion and sustainability of agrifood systems. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system combined with nitrogen management under conservation agriculture-based (CA) maize-wheat system (MWS) effects on crop yields, irrigation water productivity (WP), nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and profitability. Grain yields of maize, wheat, and MWS in the SDI with 100% recommended N were significantly higher by 15.

Reduced tillage and crop diversification can improve productivity and profitability of rice-based rotations of the Eastern Gangetic Plains.

Intensive rice ()-based cropping systems in south Asia provide much of the calorie and protein requirements of low to middle-income rural and urban populations. Intensive tillage practices demand more resources, damage soil quality, and reduce crop yields and profit margins. Crop diversification along with conservation agriculture (CA)-based management practices may reduce external input use, improve resource-use efficiency, and increase the productivity and profitability of intensive cropping systems.

Performance of a hermetic device and neem () in storing wheat seed: Evidence from participatory household trials in central Bangladesh.

Smallholder farmers in Bangladesh often use low-density polyethylene (LDPE) bags contained within woven polypropylene bags to store wheat seed during the summer monsoon that precedes winter season planting. High humidity and temperature during this period can encourage increased seed moisture and pests, thereby lowering seed quality. Following a farm household survey conducted to inform trial design, eighty farmers were engaged in an action research process in which they participated in designing and conducting trials comparing traditional and alternative seed storage methods over 30 weeks.

Climate-smart agriculture practices influence weed density and diversity in cereal-based agri-food systems of western Indo-Gangetic plains.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA)-based management practices are getting popular across South-Asia as an alternative to the conventional system for particular weed suppression, resources conservation and environmental quality. An 8-year study (2012-2013 to 2019-2020) was conducted to understand the shift in weed density and diversity under different CSA-based management practices called scenarios (Sc). These Sc involved: Sc1, conventional tillage (CT)-based rice-wheat system with flood irrigation (farmers' practice); Sc2, CT-rice, zero tillage (ZT)-wheat-mungbean with flood irrigation (partial CA-based); Sc3, ZT rice-wheat-mungbean with flood irrigation (partial CSA-based rice); Sc4, ZT maize-wheat-mungbean with flood irrigation (partial CSA-based maize); Sc5, ZT rice-wheat-mungbean with subsurface drip irrigation (full CSA-based rice); and Sc6, ZT maize-wheat-mungbean with subsurface drip irrigation (full CSA-based maize).

Optimal design and setting of rotary strip-tiller blades to intensify dry season cropping in Asian wet clay soil conditions.

Fine-textured clayey soils dominate Asian rice fields that are kept either fallow or cultivated with non-rice crops after harvest of monsoon rice. Use of seeding machinery compatible with the principles of conservation agriculture on such soils, however, has not been promising. Under these conditions - which predominate the population and poverty dense areas of coastal South Asia - such machinery fails to open a furrow or throws excessive soil out of the tilled furrow during strip-till seeding.

Modified strip tillage blades for two-wheel tractor seed drills improves maize crop establishment under conservation agriculture.

Two-wheel tractors (2WTs) are widely used by resource-poor farmers to prepare land in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (EIGP). This paper demonstrates that improved tillage blade design can enhance maize crop establishment under strip tillage, which falls under the rubric of conservation agriculture (CA). In order to achieve this aim, it is necessary to identify appropriate blade design and rotational speed for power tiller operated seeders, or PTOS, which can be attached to 2WTs and that are increasingly popular in the EIGP.

Multi-year weed community dynamics and rice yields as influenced by tillage, crop establishment, and weed control: Implications for rice-maize rotations in the eastern Gangetic plains.

In South Asia's rice-based cropping systems, most farmers flood and repetitively till their fields before transplanting. This establishment method, commonly termed puddled transplanted rice (TPR), is costly. In addition, it is labor and energy intensive.

Can productivity and profitability be enhanced in intensively managed cereal systems while reducing the environmental footprint of production? Assessing sustainable intensification options in the breadbasket of India.

In the most productive area of the Indo-Gangetic Plains in Northwest India where high yields of rice and wheat are commonplace, a medium-term cropping system trial was conducted in Haryana State. The goal of the study was to identify integrated management options for further improving productivity and profitability while rationalizing resource use and reducing environmental externalities (i.e.

A global analysis of alternative tillage and crop establishment practices for economically and environmentally efficient rice production.

Alternative tillage and rice establishment options should aim at less water and labor to produce similar or improved yields compared with traditional puddled-transplanted rice cultivation. The relative performance of these practices in terms of yield, water input, and economics varies across rice-growing regions. A global meta and mixed model analysis was performed, using a dataset involving 323 on-station and 9 on-farm studies (a total of 3878 paired data), to evaluate the yield, water input, greenhouse gas emissions, and cost and net return with five major tillage/crop establishment options.

Agronomic improvements can make future cereal systems in South Asia far more productive and result in a lower environmental footprint.

South Asian countries will have to double their food production by 2050 while using resources more efficiently and minimizing environmental problems. Transformative management approaches and technology solutions will be required in the major grain-producing areas that provide the basis for future food and nutrition security. This study was conducted in four locations representing major food production systems of densely populated regions of South Asia.

Assessing the performance of the photo-acoustic infrared gas monitor for measuring CO(2), N(2)O, and CH(4) fluxes in two major cereal rotations.

Rapid, precise, and globally comparable methods for monitoring greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes are required for accurate GHG inventories from different cropping systems and management practices. Manual gas sampling followed by gas chromatography (GC) is widely used for measuring GHG fluxes in agricultural fields, but is laborious and time-consuming. The photo-acoustic infrared gas monitoring system (PAS) with on-line gas sampling is an attractive option, although it has not been evaluated for measuring GHG fluxes in cereals in general and rice in particular.