Designing profitable, resource use efficient and environmentally sound cereal based systems for the Western Indo-Gangetic plains.

In the western Indo-Gangetic plains, issues of deterioration in soil, water, and environment quality coupled with low profitability jeopardize the sustainability of the dominant rice-wheat (RW) system. To address these issues, crop diversification and conservation agriculture (CA)-based management hold considerable promise but the adoption of both approaches has been low, and additional evidence generation from a multi-criteria productivity and sustainability perspective is likely required to help drive the change. Compared to prevailing farmers' practice (FP), results suggest that CA-based rice management increased profitability by 13% and energy use efficiency (EUE) by 21% while reducing irrigation by 19% and global warming potential (GWP) by 28%.

Conservation Agriculture-based Sustainable Intensification of Cereal Systems Leads to Energy Conservation, Higher Productivity and Farm Profitability.

In the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, the quadruple challenges of deteriorating soil quality, declining groundwater, energy shortages, and diminishing farm profitability threaten sustainability of conventional till (CT)-based cereal production systems. A 5-year study was conducted to evaluate the effect of conservation agriculture (CA)-based management (tillage, crop establishment, residue management, and system intensification through mungbean integration) on energy budget, water productivity, and economic profitability in cereal (rice-wheat, RW/maize-wheat, MW)-based systems compared with CT-based management. In CA systems, crop residues contributed the maximum (~76%) in total energy input (167,995 MJ ha); however, fertilizer application (nonrenewable energy source) contributed the maximum (43%) in total energy input (47,760 MJ ha) in CT-based systems.