No abstract

Wheat is the second most important staple food crop of India and contributes a major share to food basket of the country. Since majority of the area under wheat is irrigated, it consumes huge quantity of fresh water for its cultivation. The availability of good quality water for irrigation is decreasing over a period of time due to vagaries of monsoon, urbanization and industrialization. The biggest challenge on this front is to improve the efficiency and productivity of water being used in existing cropping system. Therefore, it is the need of hour to improve water use efficiency for wheat production. In the milieu, the present investigation was taken with an objective of studying the effect of pre-germinated seed in crop establishment under sub-optimal soil moisture conditions by using the residual soil moisture after harvesting of rice in Indo-Gangetic plains, so that pre sowing irrigation requirement for crop establishment may be cut and reduced in time period which require from pre-sowing irrigation to field preparation. This experiment was conducted for two consecutive years 2010-11 and 2011-12 to evaluate the influence of hydropriming on the water use efficiency and grain yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under moisture stress. The experiment was conducted in split plot design with three replications keeping moisture stress treatments (optimum moisture, sub-optimal moisture and dry soil followed by irrigation) in main plots and seed priming treatments (dry seed, hydropriming, and pre-germinated seeds) in subplots. Pregerminated seed produced significantly higher grain yield (5.49 t ha of experiment showed that priming with plain water and pre-germinated seeds improved germination indices, seedling growth and crop establishment. Since priming with plain water and to have pregerminated seeds is simple and cheap method, which can increase germination percentage and homogeneity of seedling emergence under water stress conditions and it can be easily used by farmers. Interactive effect of different seed priming techniques along with seeding at sub optimal soil moisture level proved to be an efficient technique for enhancing water productivity of wheat crop.

About 9% of area on earth is under crops out of which 91% is under various stresses. On an average, about 50% yield losses are due to abiotic stresses mostly due to high temperature (20%), low temperature (7%), salinity (10%), drought (9%) and other abiotic stresses (4%). As there is no scope for increasing area under agriculture, the increased productivity from these stressed land is a must to meet the ever increasing demand. Further, the severity of abiotic stresses is likely to increase due to changing climate leading to adverse effect on crops. Therefore, abiotic stresses like drought, salinity, sodicity, acidity, water logging, heat, nutrient toxicities/ deficiencies etc need to be effectively addressed through adoption of management practices like tillage and planting options, residue management, sowing time, stress tolerant cultivars, irrigation scheduling and integrated nutrient management to conserve natural resources, mitigating their adverse effect and sustainable wheat production.

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.

No abstract

The intercropping of legumes with cereals help to achieve sustainable intensification by their mutual complementarity at efficiently using radiation, nutrients, etc. Several studies indicated such beneficial effects on the other component crop however, little research has been conducted to quantify their effects on the subsequent crop in a cropping system. In this study, the effect of the legume intercropping on the entire cropping system, particularly the maize + legume-wheat system was studied. Four legumes intercropped to maize followed by wheat crop were studied for intensification measures such as wheat equivalent yield (WEY), land equivalent ratio (LER), sustainable value index (SVI), and economic returns. N saving effect of legumes on the subsequent wheat crop was quantified with two N levels. Maize + cowpea-wheat combination was the most productive and economic intercrop combination (LER = 1.71, SVI = 0.96) with an increase in net economic return (43.63%) with a B:C ratio of 1.94. An additional 25% N (37.5 kg ha−1) was saved in the wheat crop when the legume intercropping was undertaken with maize. The results suggest that intercropping is the key to diversification and reduces the risk of crop failures by enhancing land-use efficiency, soil fertility, and economic returns under weather vagaries. This will be beneficial to small and marginal farmers of many countries.

No abstract

Rice-wheat is the predominant cropping system and contributes more than 70% of food grain production in India. However, major problem in this system is depletion and deterioration of water resources. Therefore, efforts must be focussed on reversing the trend in water resources depletion by adopting efficient irrigation technologies. The prevalent irrigation methods are less efficient due to more water losses through leaching and evaporation. Micro irrigation can be an effective tool for improving water use efficiency. The study was carried out with an objective of improving the WUE in rice-wheat cropping system with four irrigation methods in wheat crop viz check basin, drip, sprinkler and drip+rainport and three irrigation systems in rice (check basin, drip and sprinkler) at Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal during 2012-13 and 2013-14. Irrigation treatments significantly affected the grain yield of both the crops. The highest grain yield of wheat (5752 kg ha -1 ) was obtained in check basin irrigation during 2012-13 followed by drip+rainport (5614 kg ha -1 ). However, the WUE of check basin method was minimum (1.32 kg m -3 ). During 2013-14, highest yield was obtained in drip+rainport (5545 kg ha -1 ) followed by drip irrigation (5475 kg ha -1 ) with the WUE of 1.57 and 1.55 kg m -3 respectively. In rice, significant higher grain yield (4028 and 4683 kg ha -1 ) was recorded in drip followed by sprinkler irrigation. The study concludes the maximum WUE in wheat under drip+rainport treatment and in rice it was under drip irrigation treatment.