Advancing Sowing Time and Conservation Tillage - The Climate-Resilient Approach to Enhance the Productivity and Profitability of Wheat

Abstract

Field experiments consisting of two sowing time (early and timely), two tillage options (conventional tillage and conservation tillage) and ten genotypes were conducted with the aim to maximize the wheat productivity and profitability. The early sowing (second fortnight of October) produced 16.0% higher grain yield compared to timely sowing (mid-November) in northern Indian Plains. However, no significant yield differences were observed between conventional tillage (CT) and conservation tillage (CST) practices. Among genotypes, the better yielders were PBW 723, BISA 927 and HD 2967. The interaction of sowing time and genotype had a significant (p < 0.05) effect on wheat yield. However, the interaction of genotype and tillage did not produce any significant response on wheat yield. The experiments conducted at farmer’s fields also demonstrated similar performance of wheat under CT and CST systems but CST offered the savings of more than Rs. 3500 (US $ 47) along with 125 kg ha − 1 lesser CO 2 emissions over CT due to reduction in fuel consumption associated with tillage and seed bed operations. At farmers field also, early sown wheat yielded 5.5% higher over wheat sown in November. The results of present studies show that early sowing of high yielding wheat genotypes under CST practice enhanced the productivity and profitability of wheat under rice-wheat cropping system along with lesser noxious impact on the environment. Amidst climate vagary and its menace on the agriculture, the adoption of climate-resilient management practices such as advancing the sowing time and conservation tillage can improve the productivity of long duration wheat cultivars in sub-tropical humid conditions besides lesser deleterious consequences on the environment.

Boosting wheat yield, profitability and NUE with prilled and nano urea in conservation tillage

“…Conservation tillage was observed to increase wheat grain yield by 10–20% compared to conventional tillage 56 , 57 , which can be attributed to improved soil health and maintained soil moisture in the root zone, providing a better environment for wheat growth and development. An important advantage of conservation tillage is the reduction of production costs by US $33 to 50 58 – 60 , including the need for labor and fuel used in tillage operations and equipment maintenance. Among conservation tillage practices, zero tillage for wheat production was found to be most successful in terms of good crop establishment and increased yield 61 – 63 .…”

The Benefit of Mycorrhizal Fungi and Beneficial Soil Bacteria in Drought Exposed Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata) Is Genotype and Environment Dependent

“…Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses that cause significant reductions in crop yield and quality [1,2] and is expected to be more severe since the occurrence of drought is increased due to alteration in the evapotranspiration (ET) as well as unfavorable rainfall distribution caused by global warming [3,4]. Several study results have shown that the negative consequences of drought can be overcome by adaptation of different strategies to improve the climate resilience of agriculture, i.e., sowing time [5][6][7], tillage systems [8,9], irrigation [10][11][12], selection of crop and varieties [13,14] and use of beneficial soil bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi [15,16]. The latter was reported in the literature as a complementary measure that can mitigate the effects of biotic and abiotic stresses in crop production [16].…”