Rice fallows - An opportunity for horizontal expansion of pulses

Rice fallows- An opportunity for horizontal expansion of pulses

Masood Ali, SS Singh Ashutosh Sarker and S K Agrawal

ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses ResearchKanpur

International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas

• Introduction

• Distribution of rice fallows

• Bio-physical and production constraints

• Research & developmental efforts

• Technologies in shelf

• Recommendations

Outlines

• Low-land, mono-cropped rice under rainfed eco-system

• Remain fallow during winter due to inadequate moisture /excessive moisture in surface soil at planting time of winter crops

Assam

Jharkhand

Chattisga

rh

Eastern Regions

Central Region

Costal Peninsula

Rice fallows in India (11.65 million ha)

Eastern Region : 5.7 m haHot dry sub-humid, cool winter, poor drainage, deep Alluvial , mod. calcareous (1200-1700 mm rainfall)

Central Region : 4.4 m haDry/moist sub-humid, silty clay-clay, 1200-1600 mm rainfall, cool winter

Coastal region: 0.48 m haDry sub-humid, mild winter, bi-modal rains (1000-1200 mm), soils mod. alkaline

Bio-physical and production constraints in Rice Fallows

A. Bio-physical•Rainfed ecology

•High run-off and low moisture storage

•Water stagnation/excessive moisture in coastal

region and low residual moisture in central region

•Hard soils after puddle rice, develops cracks

•Low organic matter content

•Terminal drought & heat stresses

B. Production constraints•Narrow window for planting

•Lack of short duration and high yielding varieties

•Poor plant stand (poor soil-seed contact in relay sowing)

•No use of fertilizers/chemicals

•Severe weed infestation including parasitic weeds

•High incidence of diseases: powdery mildew- urdbean

and mungbean, rust- lentil, wilt complex - chickpea

•Moisture stress and terminal drought

C. Socio-economic constraints•Resource-poor farmers

•Lack of credit and market infrastructure

•Non-availability of critical inputs

•Scarcity of human labours after rice harvest

(migration to urban areas)

•Lack of mechanization/ draft power

•Stray cattle

Poor plant population in relay sowing

Stray animals and un-controlled grazing-a social problem

Blue Bull menace

Planting system in rice fallows

Rice-lentil

Rice-Grasspea

Rice-Urdbean/Mungbean

Major rice-pulse relay cropping

International

• ICRISAT: Enhancing chickpea production in rainfed rice fallow land

of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, 2008

• ICARDA: Expanding lentil production in Eastern and North-eastern

states under rice based production system in India, 2010

• ICARDA: Enhancing grasspea production in Eastern and North-

eastern states under rice based production system in India, 2010

• OFID-ICARDA: Enhancing pulse production through intensification of

rice fallows with pulse as a second crop, 2013, Nepal, Bangladesh

R & D Efforts

Lentil grown in Rice-fallow

Kamrup Manipur

Improved v/s local varieties of grasspea across project

sites (2013-14 and 2014-15)

Nirmal Ratan Prateek Mahateora0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

955.134

1356.25

1193.5

437.5

707.8

1033

835.5

201

44.61 32.8592.5 118.25

Demonstration yield (Kg/ha) Farmers’ practice (Kg/ha) % increase

Yield advantage in lentil over farmers’ practice across project sites (2013-14 and 2014-15)

Moitree KLS-218 IPL-406 HUL-57 PL-6 PL-8 PL-70

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1354

1032.5

11231161.6

996

1135.165 1109

678 706.5746 753.3 729 713.5

769

60.86 47.39 52.13 54.05 35.3759.96 44.2

Demonstration yield (Kg/ha) Farmers’ practice (Kg/ha) % increase

Glimpses of capacity development

No. of capacity development Male Female Total

211 7105 1699 8804

National:• All India Coordinated Pulse Improvement Project, 1967

• AICRP on Mungbean, Urdbean, Lentil, Lathyrus, Rajmash

(French bean) and Peas, 1995

• Mitigating abiotic stresses and enhancing resource-use

efficiency in pulses in rice fallows , 2010

• National Food Security Mission, 2007

• Brainstorming meeting on rice fallows, 2013

• Strategy workshop on pulses-April 2016

Research & Developmental Efforts

CONVENER Masood Ali

Co- CONVENERS Sajeev Gupta

A Sarker

Technologies in shelf

Short duration and disease resistant varieties

Green manuring and application of FYM in rice crop

Zero-till drill

Enhanced seed rate under relay cropping

Seed priming

Seed treatment (Rhizobium and fungicides)

Management of rice stubbles

Contd….

Spray post- emergence herbicides

Seed coating with micronutrients

Foliar spray of 2% urea/DAP

Adoption of suitable IPM module Water harvesting (farm ponds, community

reservoirs) and recycling (sprinkler)

Potential pulse crops identified for rice-fallows in different states of India

Pulse crops States

Lentil Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand

Grass pea Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal

Chickpea Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand

Mungbean Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka

Urdbean Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha

Rice ratoon extracts 20-25 % of soil moisture over non-ratoon

Ratoon rice

Spray Quizolofop- N- ethyl (post-emergence) herbicide

Interventions to avoid regeneration

Low ratooning rice line (IET 4786)

Characteristics of crop varieties

• Early seedling vigor• Early maturity • Small seed size• Resistant/tolerant to key diseases • Drought and heat tolerance• Amenable to mechanical harvesting

Improved Varieties

Lentil: HUL 57, moitree, NDL 1,

Pant L 8, Pant L 6, IPL 81, KLS 218

Urdbean: LBG 17, LBG 402, LBG 623, KU 301, TU 94-2

Chickpea: BG 372, PG 186, JG 315, JG 16, JG 14

Mungbean: LGG 450, Pusa 9072, Pairymung, TM 96-2. TARM 1

Grasspea: Ratan, Prateek, Mahateora

Soaking seeds in water for 6-8 hrs and sowing of primed seed at 8-10 days before harvest of rice

Improves germination, growth, plant stand and yield

Seed Priming- a simple and effective practice in relay cropping

Further refinement

•Soaking seeds in KH2PO4 solution

•Sowing methods for primed seed under minimum tillage

•Optimum seed rate

Further refinement

• Formulation with micronutrients, growth hormones and PGPR

•Seed pellets with nutrients

Foliar Nutrition- a low cost effective intervention

Effective in both under relay cropping or zero tillage system

• Spray of 2% urea/ DAP @ pre-flowering stage

Quizalofop @ 100g/ha for rice stubble management

Use of herbicides- an important intervention

Imazethapyr @ 50g/ha at 2-4 leaf stage for seasonal weeds

20 cm rice stubble Residue removal Mulching

Planting lentil after harvest of rice crop

0-5 cm 5-10 cm 10-15 cm

Moisture extraction pattern under stubble management in lentil

Significant yield gain due to life saving irrigation with minimal amount of water (2.0 cm) under

severe moisture stress in rice fallow pulses

Water harvesting and life saving irrigation

Life saving irrigation through sprinkler system

Mechanization

(A)Opening furrow, placing fertilizer, seeds and covering of seeds (B) Manual furrow opener (C) Manually operated IIPR No- Till Drill (D) Tractor Operated Happy Seeder

Drainage channel 30 x 30 cm around the field

Avoid water stagnation in Rice fallows ( provision for Proper drainage)

Recommendations

• Disaggregated mapping of rice fallows• Consolidation of R & D activities• Pilot projects• System approach• Development of short duration, high yielding and

disease resistant varieties having tolerance to terminal drought and heat stress

• Scaling-up crop management practices• Rural credit and market

I. R & D Issues

Public awareness Creation of community water reservoirs Solar energy operated shallow tube wells Creation of seed hubs Mechanization of field operation Rural credit Road and marketing infrastructure Legislation for containing menace of blue bulls

II. Policy issues

Pulses in Rice fallows……. ……..brings

Prosperity & Sustainability

Assessing optimum soil moisture for relay sowing

Reasons for fallows

Rainfed/ Lack of irrigation

Highly variable and inadequate monsoonal rains; very

low probability of winter rains

Low soil moisture in surface layer after harvest of rice

Water stagnation/excessive moisture in

November/December

Soil compaction and cracks in Vertisols

Cultivation of long duration rice varieties

Lack of appropriate varieties of winter

crops for late planting

Lack of public awareness, R & D efforts

and policy support

Stray cattle

Cont.….

Rice fallows in IndiaState Kharif-rice

area ('000 ha)Rabi-fallow

('000 ha)Rice-fallow area as

% of kharif rice area% of total rabi-

fallow area

Andhra Pradesh 2657 305 11.5 2.6

Assam 2234 539 24.1 4.6

Bihar 5974 2196 36.8 18.9

Karnataka 984 182 18.5 1.6

Madhya Pradesh 5596 4382 78.3 37.6

Maharashtra 1762 629 35.7 5.4

Orissa 3879 1219 31.4 10.5

Uttar Pradesh 6255 353 5.6 3.0

West Bengal 4617 1719 37.2 14.8

Others 2378 128 5.4 0.4Total 40,184 11,652 29.0 100.0

Selection of appropriate variety of rice and pulses

Timely sowing under relay cropping

Mulching / complete soil cover