Resource conservation techniques in rice wheat cropping system

2

Resource conservation technologies in rice- wheat

cropping system

Sudhir RajputDivision of Agronomy

Indian Agricultural Research InstituteNew Delhi – 110 012

Outline

• Introduction

• Emerging challenges in RWCS

• RCTs in Rice-wheat system

• Research finding

• Conclusions

3

Introduction

• Rice-wheat (RW) system 13.5 m ha area in South AsiaExtending across IGP of

Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

• RW contribute >80% of total cereal production

• Critically important to employment & food security for millions of rural families

4

Rice-Wheat System in the South Asia

5

Country Area (m ha) Area (%) Contribution (%) in total cereal production

Rice Wheat

India 10.3 23 40 85

Pakistan 2.3 72 19 92

Bangladesh 0.5 5 85 100

Nepal 0.6 35 84 71

Total 13.7

(Yadav et al.,1998)

Rice-wheat cropping system in India

• RWCS contributes about 31% of total food grain production of country

• Contributes about 90% rice & 60% wheat to PDS and thus considered as back bone of country’s food security

• It has a capacity to produce 10-15 tonnes of cereal grain/ha /yr 6

Resource conservation technologies (RCTs)

8

Resource conservation technologies are the practice, when followed results in saving of energy, cost and also reduced the environmental pollution over the conventional practices.

Prospects of RCTs in rice- wheat cropping system

• Reduction in cost of production

• Saving in water and nutriens

• Increased productivity

• Improvement in soil health

• Reduced incidence of weeds

• Environmental benefits

• Resource improvement9

Aerobic rice

Direct seeded rice

RCTs for rice

10

SRILCC

Brown Manuring

AWD

System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

Raise output by 50% or more

Significant reductions in: Seed requirements -- by 80-90% Water requirements -- by 25-50% Agrochemicals – little or no need

Any varieties of seeds can be used

Costs of production lower by 10-25%

Farmer incomes -- rise by 50-100% Favorable environmental impacts

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Direct seeded rice

Rice is sown directly in dry soil (dry seeding) or wet soil (wet seeding), and irrigation is given to keep the soil sufficiently moist for good plant growth, but the soil is never flooded.

Methods of direct seeding

Dry seeding Wet seeding

dry seed sprouted seed

Co-culturing of Sesbania with rice for 25-30 days and then knocking

down with 2,4–D ester

Brown Manuring

- A simple handy, ever-lasting pocket tool, made up high quality plastic material and cosists of 6 strips of different shades of green from pale green to dark green

- Easy to use and inexpensive alternative to chlorophyll meter

- Measures leaf color intensity which is related to leaf N status

- Helps farmers determine the right time of N application

Leaf colour chart(LCC)

AWD in rice • Intermittent irrigation

• Flooding field with shallow water depth and then waiting for a few days after the floodwater has dissipated before irrigating again.

• AWD reduces seepage and deep drainage losses

• IGP showing large irrigation water savings (15–40% of the applied water or up to 840mm) with AWD in (PTR) in comparison with continuous flooding

(Tuong et al.,1994)

15

Aerobic rice• High-yielding rice grown in non-puddled, aerobic soils under

irrigation and high external inputs.

• Irrigation is applied when the soil becomes dry, and the quantity of applied water is sufficient to bring the soil to field capacity.

• Aerobic rice should be responsive to high inputs (water, nutrients) to reach high yields under non-flooded conditions.

RCTs for wheat

17

Zero tillage FIRBS

Surface seeding

SWI Crop residue management

System intensification

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Sowing without field preparation It has got knife type tynes, which

are used for cutting the soil as narrow slit to place seed and fertilizer at appropriate depth.

Can sow about 1.5 acre in one hour. It can save field preparation costs to the extent of Rs. 2000-2500/- per ha.

It is recommended to use the machine at a little higher soil moisture as compared to conventional tillage.

It can be used for crops like wheat, rice, soybean, greengram under tilled as well as non-tilled conditions

Zero till drill

Zero-Tillage : Astonishing Benefits

Timely planting of wheat

Water saving 20-30%

Energy saving 80%

Increased fertilizers use Efficiency

Decrease population of weeds

Increase in yield 20%

Improving SOC, soil structure & microbial population

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In this method, wheat is sown on raised beds accommodating 2-3 rows of wheat

Bed planting reduces the population of Phalaris minor on the top of the bed

Bed planting reduce the lodging

Less seed and nutrient requirement by 25 %

Good for irrigation as well as for drainage

Less water requirement by 30- 40%

Furrow irrigated raised bed system (FIRBS)

Furrow irrigated raised bed system (FIRBS)

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SYSTEM OF

WHEAT INTENSIFICATION (SWI)

Sowing one seed/pocket in line, with 25 cm x 25cm spacing

Use of conoweeder, immediately after irrigation reduced irrigation water during the vegetative growth period

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SWI for poor and marginal community estern IGP , avg productivity is verey low.

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Surface seeding

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Excess soil moisture lead delayed sowings after rice harvest in lowland areas

Seeds of wheat broadcast (about a week before harvesting) or on wet/muddy soil (after rice harvest)

Benefits: (i) Equipment not needed, (ii) Heavy textured soils are more suitable, (iii) Suitable for areas where land preparation is very difficult and costly, and often results in cloddy tilth

Most simplest ZT systems, promoted in eastern India, Nepal & Bangladesh

Precautions: (i) Key to success is correct soil moisture at sowing, (ii) Less moisture reduces germination, higher moisture can cause rotting of seeds, (iii) Rice straw mulch after seeding ensures better germination

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Surface seeding

Crop Residue Management Techniques• The HappySeeder is a tractor-powered

machine that cuts and lifts the rice straw, sows into the bare soil, and deposits the straw over the sown area as a mulch.

• The HappySeeder thus combines stubble mulching and seed and fertiliser drilling into a single pass

• Turbo seeder is an advance version of happy seeder Developed by PAU in collaboration with ACIAR

• Capable of seeding in to residue load of up to 8t/ha

(Sidhu et al., 2007)

Crop residues management by Happy Seeder

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CropResidues Beats the Terminal Heat in Wheat

-7.5

-6.5

-5.5

-4.5

-3.5

-2.5

-1.5

-0.5

0.5

110 111 114 115 116 120 121 122 128 130 131 132 135 138 141 143 148 150 151 153

Days after sowing

Tem

per

ature

diffe

rence

(o C

)

Residue retained Residue removed

Terminal heat

( Jat et al.,2008)

29

Reduces unevenness of the field + 2 cm

Improves crop stand and yields

Additional field area added ~3-6%

Increase water productivity by 35-45%

Increase nutrient use efficiency by 15-25%

Improve farm profitability(Jat et al., 2004)

April to JuneJuly to Oct Nov to April

Dual-purpose summer legumes (DPSL)

Ssummer moongbean fits well in RWCS and can partly meet N requirements of RWCS.

Summer moongbean has a potential to yield 0.5-1.5 t/ha pulse grain, leaves 30-50 kg N/ha as a residual N

Time and fuel consumption as influenced by tillage practices in wheat at farmers field

Tillage practices

Tractor operation

Time (hr/ha)

Fuel (liters/ha)

Time saving (%)

Fuel saving (%)

Zero tillage 1 1.56 6.00 83.42 90.76

Conventional tillage (drill)

10 9.41 65.00 --- ---

(Sharma et al., 2004)

Sowing method

Days taken to maturity

Irrigation water

applied (cm)

Rice yield (t/ha)

Water productivity (kg

grains/m3)

DSR 113 148 6.82 0.461

TPR 125 174 7.59 0.436

Water productivity (kg grains /m3 ) as influenced by sowing methods (average of 6 years) Water productivity (kg grains /m3 ) as influenced by sowing methods (average of 6 years)

( Gill et al. 2007)

Grain yield and irrigation water productivity of rice under different crop establishment techniques and land leveling practices

Crop Establishment

Technique

Rice Grain yield (t/ha) Total water use (m3/ha) Water productivity(kg grain/m3 water)

Laser Leveling

Traditional Leveling

Laser Leveling

Traditional Leveling

Laser Leveling

Traditional Leveling

DSR(drill sown)

5.25 5.10 11200 12471 0.50 0.41

TPR (puddled)

5.41 4.98 13718 15056 0.39 0.33

Mean 5.33 5.04 12459 13763 0.45 0.37

35(Jat et al., 2006)

Rice grain yield and N-use efficiency under different N management practices

N management practice

Total N applied(kg/ha)

Grain yield (t/ha) Agronomic efficiency (kg grain/kg N)

Control 0 2.75 -

Recommended N management

80 3.86 13.9

LCC≤3 (no basal N) 80 4.18 17.9

80% N basal+ LCC≤3 104 3.62 8.4

Farmers’ practice(3 splits)

100 3.74 9.9

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(Jat and Sharma 2005)

Planting pattern Seed rate (kg/ha)

Leaf area index

Number of spikes/

m2

Grain yield

(kg/ha)

water Productivity

(kg/m3)

Bed 75 cm -3 rows

90 4.23 386.3 4560 1.53

B 90 cm -3 rows 80 5.32 445.7 6180 2.25

B 90 cm -4 rows 90 4.66 384.7 4890 1.75

Flat planting 100 5.06 426.1 5282 1.26

CD 0.05 -- 0.26 19.84 343 0.11

Wheat yield and productivity of wheat as influenced by planting pattern

(Kumar et al.,2010)

Emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and global warming potential of soil under different tillage treatments in wheat

38(Bhatia et al.,2012)

Performance of RCT on yield, N, and WUE in RWCS

Treatment Mean crop yield t/ha NUE kg grain/kg N uptake WUE( kg grain/ m33water)

Rice Wheat Rice Wheat Rice Wheat

DSR 4.14 4.60 18.2 16.3 0.43 1.96

SRI 5.42 5.12 28.8 20.6 0.38 2.22

TPR 4.93 4.74 24.7 17.4 0.31 1.91

Control 1.96 2.65 0 0.00 0.12 1.10CD( P=0.05) 0.27 0.35 1.91 NS 0.30

Sub plots

ZT - 4.73 - 17.3 - 2.35

HS - 4.96 - 19.1 - 2.44

FIRB - 5.68 - 25.3 - 3.72

CWS - 4.28 - 13.6 - 1.69CD( P=0.05) - 0.10 - 1.69 - 0.35

-(Pal et al., 2012).

Effect of different RCTs in basmati rice (‘PRH 10’)-wheat (‘HD 2894’) cropping system at New Delhi

(Sharma et al., 2012)

Effect of dual purpose legumes in system productivity &profitability of RWCS

41j

(Jat et al., 2012)

Treatment Yield (t/ha) Soil fertility after 6 cycles

  Rice Wheat Total OC (%)

Av P(kg/ha)

Av K(kg/ha)

R. S. Pura (06 years)

CR without N 4.31 3.39 7.70 0.38 11.5 90

CR+ 10 kg N 4.61 3.73 8.34 0.48 15.2 99

CR+ 20 kg N 4.46 3.90 8.36 0.46 13.2 96

Kanpur (06 years)

CR without N 4.41 4.03 8.44 0.29 21.4 188

CR+ 10 kg N 4.56 4.36 8.92 0.36 25.8 200

CR+ 20 kg N 4.69 4.14 8.83 0.34 26.5 198

Initial values of OC, Available P and available K were 0.43 and 0.10%, 10.4 and 18.4 kg/ha, and 91.5 and 218 kg/ha, respectively at R. S. Pura and Kanpur.

Yadav (1997)

Crop productivity and soil fertility under crop residue incorporation

Treatment Grain yield (t/ha)

Rice Wheat Total

Removed 4.02 4.09 8.11

Burnt 4.14 4.14 8.24

Incorporated 4.47 4.57 9.04

CD (P=0.05) 0.44 0.40 0.487

(Sharma,1998)

Effect of crop residue management on the productivity of rice- wheat cropping system

( Jat et al.,2008)

Saving of resources : 60-85%

Yield advantage : 3-17%

Increase in profitability : 11-45%

Increase in energy efficiency : 20-39%

Lower production cost : 8-27%

Saving in irrigation water : 4-38%

Reduced weeds : 10-48%

Improved soil health

RCTs – Advantages in RWCS

(Sharma and Jat 2006)45

RCTs save inputs like seed, fertilizer, water energy besides improving the crop productivity and environmental quality

RCTs also improves the soil physical, biological and chemical health

RCTs are more effective in combinations rather than their individual application