An impact of agronomic practices of sustainable rice-wheat crop intensification on food security, economic adaptability, and environmental mitigation across eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains

Abstract

Graphical abstract

Impact of crop establishment and residue management on soil properties and productivity in rice‐fallow ecosystems in India

“…Soil earthworm count and their biomass in the CA system (ZTDSR) were higher compared to conventional tillage (TPR). ZT greatly improved the earthworm counts owing to improved soil aggregations, more added biomass carbon, and better soil moisture conservation (Mishra et al, 2021).…”

“…Earthworm population was counted in standing rice crop after 5‐years of experimentation during the month of September 2020 by digging the soil pits (0.3 m × 0.3 m × 0.3 m) in each treatment and hand sorting was done for collecting and counting of the worms (Mishra et al, 2021).…”

“…Cropping rotations of diverse nature provide different organic materials and thus, maintain better soil microbial diversity (Lal et al, 2020). Pulses are regarded as soil building input, and rice‐pulse cropping system is ideal for nutrient addition, particularly nitrogen and thus, helps in the restoration of soil structure after intensive puddling through favourable rhizospheric effects (Mishra et al, 2021).…”

Tillage and crop establishment effects on weeds and productivity of a rice-wheat-mungbean rotation

“…Small-holder farmers of the region depend on rice and wheat for their staple food, and also for animal feed. The current production practices in rice-wheat system (transplanting of 25–30 days old rice seedlings into puddled soil, and repeated tillage in wheat) require a large number of resources (labour, water, energy) with low resource-use efficiency ( Kumar et al, 2018 , Mishra et al, 2021 ). Besides, these traditional practices also deteriorate soil health ( Mondal et al, 2020 , Mondal et al, 2019 ), increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ( Kumar et al, 2018 , Mishra et al, 2021 ), and adversely affect the productivity of post-rice crops ( Kumar et al, 2018 , Kumar et al, 2020 ).…”

“…In view of increasing water, labour and energy shortage in rice-wheat system, the alternative crop establishment technologies e.g., system of rice intensification (SRI), machine transplanted rice (MTR), wet-seeded rice, direct-seeded rice (DSR), and zero-till (ZT) with or without crop residue retention have been developed and evaluated in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains ( Jat et al, 2014 , Samal et al, 2017 , Singh et al, 2020 , Mishra et al, 2021 ). Despite several advantages of resource conservation technologies compared to conventional systems, their adoption rate by the smallholder and resource-constrained farmers in many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the developing world is very low ( Bolliger, 2007 , Gowing and Palmer, 2008 , Affholder et al, 2010 ) due to limited access to, and use of external inputs (seeding machinery, herbicides and others) as well as having competing demands of crop residue for animal feed and fuel ( Lal, 2007 , Giller et al, 2009 , Keil et al, 2015 ), and difficulty in weed management in absence of tillage ( Giller et al, 2009 , Chauhan et al, 2012 ).…”