Cereal-Legume Cropping System in Indian Himalayan Region for Food and Environmental Sustainability

Das, Anup; Devi, Moirangthem Thoithoi; Ansari, Mukhtar; Layek, Jayanta; Bhowmick, Shiuly; Yadav, Gulab Singh; Singh, Raghavendra

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-0253-4_2

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The average nitrogen addition/contribution to the soil during the cowpea growth and development phase is in the range of 40-80 kg N. ha-1 and sometimes up to 200 kg N. ha-1 (Meena et al, 2015). Also, it is useful as a cover crop or an erosion-preventing crop; it helps in suppressing weeds; and also aids in the retention of moisture (Das et al, 2018). Another key advantage of cowpea production is that when used as an inter-crop with other crops, it induces the growth of beneficial soil microorganisms and reduces the use of synthetic agrochemicals (Bukovsky-Reyes et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints and Prospects of Improving Cowpea Productivity to Ensure Food, Nutritional Security and Environmental Sustainability

Omomowo

Babalola

2021

Front. Plant Sci.

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Providing safe and secure food for an increasing number of people globally is challenging. Coping with such a human population by merely applying the conventional agricultural production system has not proved to be agro-ecologically friendly; nor is it sustainable. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp) is a multi-purpose legume. It consists of high-quality protein for human consumption, and it is rich in protein for livestock fodder. It enriches the soil in that it recycles nutrients through the fixation of nitrogen in association with nodulating bacteria. However, the productivity of this multi-functional, indigenous legume that is of great value to African smallholder farmers and the rural populace, and also to urban consumers and entrepreneurs, is limited. Because cowpea is of strategic importance in Africa, there is a need to improve on its productivity. Such endeavors in Africa are wrought with challenges that include drought, salinity, the excessive demand among farmers for synthetic chemicals, the repercussions of climate change, declining soil nutrients, microbial infestations, pest issues, and so forth. Nevertheless, giant strides have already been made and there have already been improvements in adopting sustainable and smart biotechnological approaches that are favorably influencing the production costs of cowpea and its availability. As such, the prospects for a leap in cowpea productivity in Africa and in the enhancement of its genetic gain are good. Potential and viable means for overcoming some of the above-mentioned production constraints would be to focus on the key cowpea producer nations in Africa and to encourage them to embrace biotechnological techniques in an integrated approach to enhance for sustainable productivity. This review highlights the spectrum of constraints that limit the cowpea yield, but looks ahead of the constraints and seeks a way forward to improve cowpea productivity in Africa. More importantly, this review investigates applications and insights concerning mechanisms of action for implementing eco-friendly biotechnological techniques, such as the deployment of bio inoculants, applying climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices, agricultural conservation techniques, and multi-omics smart technology in the spheres of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, for improving cowpea yields and productivity to achieve sustainable agro-ecosystems, and ensuring their stability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints and Prospects of Improving Cowpea Productivity to Ensure Food, Nutritional Security and Environmental Sustainability

Omomowo

Babalola

2021

Front. Plant Sci.

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“…The probability of integrating green manures into the system becomes necessary when nutrient mining imbalances the soil quality stabilization due to inadequate management practices. The potential niche available in these cropping systems would be degraded due to the non-incorporation of legumes in the cereal rotation system (Amede and Taboge, 2007;Das et al, 2018). Therefore, biomass recycling becomes important to regulate and stabilize the soil quality with the improvement of soil biological (soil enzymatic activities), physical, and chemical properties (macroand micronutrients).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil quality restoration and yield stabilization in acidic soils of northeastern Himalayas: Five years impact of green manuring and crop residue management

Ansari

Choudhary

Ravisankar

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Soil quality restoration and crop productivity maximization are the global challenge to feed the galloping population. The task is much more daunting in a risk-prone, fragile, and low productive hilly region due to the depletion of supporting and regulating ecosystem services. A five-year long-term (2012–2017) field experiment was conducted to stabilize the yield and soil quality through legume green manuring and crop residue recycling in intensified cropping systems in the Eastern Himalayan region of India. Four treatments involving three green manures [green gram (Vigna radiata); cowpea (Vigna unguiculata); Sesbania (Sesbania aculeata) along with control (no-green manure)], three cropping systems [groundnut (Arachis hypogaea)—pea (Pisum sativum); maize (Zea mays)—pea, and maize + groundnut–pea] and two levels of residue management practices [residue removal and residue retention] were evaluated in three times replicated split–split plot design. Among the green manure options, Sesbania exerted a significant positive impact on the soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, available micro- (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu), and macronutrients (N, P and K) in surface (0–0.15 m) and subsurface (0.15–0.45 m) soils. The improvement in soil enzymatic activities (acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, dehydrogenase, beta-glucosidase, and aryl sulfatase activity) (p < 0.05) in Sesbania-treated soil was +28.1% to +38.9% in surface and +18.3% to +27.3% in subsurface soils over non-green manure. Sesbania-treated soils also exhibited higher soil quality index (SQI) and stratification ratio (SR) of available soil nutrients and enzymes over non-green manured soils. Among the cropping systems, groundnut intercropped with maize followed by peas (MGP) with in situ residue retention increased (p < 0.05) the available soil macro- and micronutrients, SOC stock, soil enzymes, SR, and SQI in comparison to other cropping systems. Sesbania green manuring and residue retention improved the yield sustainability by +19% and +11% in the MGP system over non-green manuring and residue removal, respectively. Therefore, Sesbania green manuring in the MGP cropping system along with residue retention is recommended for stabilizing the soil quality through enhancing supporting and regulating ecosystem services and maintaining long-term productivity in the fragile Eastern Himalayan ecosystem of India.

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“…The substantial increase in the area of crop rotation is driven by increasing population demands for food, feed, and fuel and the development of short-duration cultivars (Timsina and Connor, 2001;Das et al, 2018). Crop rotation is an efficient planting mode to improve land productivity (Zhao et al, 2020) and resource utilization efficiency (Xin and Tao, 2019), which can alleviate many ecological and environmental problems, but it still has some negative effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rice Paddies Reduce Subsequent Yields of Wheat Due to Physical and Chemical Soil Constraints

et al. 2022

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Yields of wheat crops that succeed rice paddy crops are generally low. To date, it has been unclear whether such low yields were due to rice paddies altering soil physical or mineral characteristics, or both. To investigate this quandary, we conducted field experiments in the Jianghan Plain to analyze differences in the spatial distribution of wheat roots between rice-wheat rotation (RW) and dryland-wheat rotations (DW) using a range of nitrogen treatments. Dryland wheat crops were preceded by either dryland soybean or corn in the prior summer. Biomass of wheat crops in RW systems was significantly lower than that of DW for all N fertilizer treatments, although optimal nitrogen management resulted in comparable wheat yields in both DW and RW. Soil saturated water capacity and non-capillary porosity were higher in DW than RW, whereas soil bulk density was higher in RW. Soil available nitrogen and organic matter were higher in DW than RW irrespective of N application, while soil available P and K were higher under RW both at anthesis and post-harvest stages. At anthesis, root length percentage (RLP) was more concentrated in surface layers (0–20 cm) in RW, whereas at 20–40 cm and 40–60 cm, RLP was higher in DW than RW for all N treatments. At maturity, RLP were ranked 0–20 > 20–40 > 40–60 cm under both cropping systems irrespective of N fertilization. Root length percentage and soil chemical properties at 0–20 cm were positively correlated (r = 0.79 at anthesis, r = 0.68 at post-harvest) with soil available P, while available N (r = −0.59) and soil organic matter (r = −0.39) were negatively correlated with RLP at anthesis. Nitrogen applied at 180 kg ha−1 in three unform amounts of 60 kg N ha−1 at sowing, wintering and jointing resulted in higher yields than other treatments for both cropping systems. Overall, our results suggest that flooding of rice paddies increased bulk density and reduced available nitrogen, inhibiting the growth and yield of subsequent wheat crops relative to rainfed corn or soybean crops.

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Cereal-Legume Cropping System in Indian Himalayan Region for Food and Environmental Sustainability

Cited by 22 publications

References 73 publications

Constraints and Prospects of Improving Cowpea Productivity to Ensure Food, Nutritional Security and Environmental Sustainability

Constraints and Prospects of Improving Cowpea Productivity to Ensure Food, Nutritional Security and Environmental Sustainability

Soil quality restoration and yield stabilization in acidic soils of northeastern Himalayas: Five years impact of green manuring and crop residue management

Rice Paddies Reduce Subsequent Yields of Wheat Due to Physical and Chemical Soil Constraints

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