Rice-wheat cropping system, intensively followed in Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP), played a prominent role in fulfilling the food grains demand of the increasing population of South Asia. In northern Indian plains, some practices such as intensive rice cultivation with traditional method for long-term have been associated with severe deterioration of natural resources, declining factor productivity, multiple nutrients deficiencies, depleting groundwater, labour scarcity and higher cost of cultivation, putting the agricultural sustainability in question. Varietal development, soil and water management, and adoption of resource conservation technologies in rice cultivation are the key interventions areas to address these challenges. The cultivation of lesser water requiring crops, replacing rice in light-textured soil and rainfed condition, should be encouraged through policy interventions. Direct seeding of short duration, high-yielding and stress tolerant rice varieties with water conservation technologies can be a successful approach to improve the input use efficiency in rice cultivation under medium-heavy-textured soils. Moreover, integrated approach of suitable cultivars for conservation agriculture, mechanized transplanting on zero-tilled/unpuddled field and need-based application of water, fertilizer and chemicals might be a successful approach for sustainable rice production system in the current scenario. In this review study, various challenges in productivity and sustainability of rice cultivation system and possible alternatives and solutions to overcome such challenges are discussed in details.

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The growing demand for food to feed the increasing population of India has made it necessary to bring more land under cultivation with assured irrigation facilities. The irrigation sector demands a high amount of the available freshwater resources of the country. Thus, the efficiency of its use is of utmost importance for sustainable agriculture. India is the second-largest irrigated country and is one of the leading countries in terms of the expansion of * Gestion de l'eau d'irrigation à la ferme en Inde: défis et lacunes de la recherche

The present study was conducted at ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal research farm to study the effect of no-till planters such as inclined plate planter and broad bed shaper-cum-planter on yield, energetics and economics of maize crop production and compared with conventional practices of maize sowing using seed-cum-fertilizer drill. The maize hybrid variety of DMRH-1303 was sown in kharif season of 2019 using inclined plate planter and broad bed shaper-cum-planter under wheat residue load 8 t/ha (HI-1544). The wheat was harvested by combine harvester and its residue was chaffed using shredder. The actual field capacity and field efficiency of inclined plate planter, broad bed shaper-cum-planter and seed-cum-fertilizer drill were observed as 0.31, 0.32 and 0.39 ha/h and 51.67, 58.18 and 76.47%, respectively. The energy consumption for shredding of wheat straw was 399.31 MJ/ha. The energy consumption was maximum in case of sowing with convention seed drill (1965.30 MJ/ha) including single pass of each cultivator and rotavator, which was followed by broad bed shaper-cum-planter under permanent bed condition (792.39 MJ/ha) and inclined plate planter under permanent bed condition (468.77 MJ/ha). The broad bed shaper-cum-planter and inclined plate planter saved energy consumption by 59.7% and 76.14%, respectively as compared to conventional seed-cum-fertilizer drill.The use of inclined plate planter (Rs. 652 per ha) or broad bed former-cum-planter (Rs. 664 per ha) could save 67% in cost of operation compared to seed-cum-fertilizer drill (Rs. 2017 per ha).

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