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

Abstract

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. Novel production-scale research platforms were established to assess and optimize three futuristic cropping systems and management scenarios (S2, S3, S4) in comparison with current management (S1). With best agronomic management practices (BMPs), including conservation agriculture (CA) and cropping system diversification, the productivity of rice- and wheat-based cropping systems of South Asia increased substantially, whereas the global warming potential intensity (GWPi) decreased. Positive economic returns and less use of water, labor, nitrogen, and fossil fuel energy per unit food produced were achieved. In comparison with S1, S4, in which BMPs, CA and crop diversification were implemented in the most integrated manner, achieved 54% higher grain energy yield with a 104% increase in economic returns, 35% lower total water input, and a 43% lower GWPi. Conservation agriculture practices were most suitable for intensifying as well as diversifying wheat-rice rotations, but less so for rice-rice systems. This finding also highlights the need for characterizing areas suitable for CA and subsequent technology targeting. A comprehensive baseline dataset generated in this study will allow the prediction of extending benefits to a larger scale.

Herbicides for weed management in dry direct-seeded rice

“…The method of direct-seeding avoids the transplanting and puddling operations and is an attractive and sustainable alternative to traditional transplanting of rice. Dry direct-seeding of rice (dry-DSR) offers advantages such as faster and easier planting, reduced labour, earlier crop maturity by 7-10 days, more efficient water uses and higher tolerance of water deficit, less methane emission (Ladha et al 2015) and often higher profit in areas with an assured water supply (Balasubramanian and Hill 2002).A major impediment in the successful cultivation of dry-DSR in tropical countries is heavy infestation of weeds which causes rice grain yield losses that range from 50-91% (Paradkar et al 1997, Rao et al 2007, Chauhan and Johnson 2010, Rao and Ladha 2011 due to simultaneous emergence of weeds and crop and less availability of efficient selective herbicides for control of weeds during initial stages of crop weed competition. Hence, present study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of different chemical and mechanical weed control methods and its economics in dry-DSR.…”

A New Dryland Development Paradigm Grounded in Empirical Analysis of Dryland Systems Science

“…Traverse is largely supported by integrated modelling, participatory and learning approaches in the literature (e.g. Alkemade et al, 2013;Alam et al, 2015;Ladha et al, 2016). These extend beyond single spatial scales and provide decision makers with information over multiple time frames, aiding development planning (Stringer et al, 2014).…”

Physical and Chemical Properties of a Sandy Loam Soil Under Irrigated Rice-Wheat Sequence in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia

“…Management practices that are known to enhance resource-use efficiency and crop productivity with lower environmental footprints are crucial to enhancing the sustainability of an intensive cropping system such as rice-wheat in South Asia [22][23][24]. Over the past couple of decades, resource-conserving tillage (e.g., zero tillage, ZT) along with complementary crop establishment (CE) methods (e.g., dry direct seeding of rice, DSR) and crop residue recycling (e.g., mulching) have received increasing attention to (i) improve crop productivity, (ii) improve soil health, (iii) reduce the cost of production, and (iv) maintain or improve air quality [1,3,4,9].…”

“…Over the past couple of decades, resource-conserving tillage (e.g., zero tillage, ZT) along with complementary crop establishment (CE) methods (e.g., dry direct seeding of rice, DSR) and crop residue recycling (e.g., mulching) have received increasing attention to (i) improve crop productivity, (ii) improve soil health, (iii) reduce the cost of production, and (iv) maintain or improve air quality [1,3,4,9]. In a comprehensive multilocation study, large benefits in crop productivity, economics, resource use, and global warming intensity have been reported [22]. As the conservation tillage practices have been reported to improve soil quality in non-rice-based cropping systems [25], they could also be a solution of poorly managed soil condition in RWS of northwestern India.…”