Identifying viable nutrient management interventions at the farm level: The case of smallholder organic Basmati rice production in Uttarakhand, India

The 4p1000 initiative: Opportunities, limitations and challenges for implementing soil organic carbon sequestration as a sustainable development strategy

“…In particular, estimates of the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus required to increase SOC stocks on agricultural land globally were deemed unrealistic (van Groeningen et al, 2017;de Vries, 2017). The nutrient cost of SOC sequestration may be addressed by (1) optimising nutrient management through improved farm management practices (Ditzler et al, 2018), (2) incorporating spatially-differentiated SOC sequestration strategies into precision agriculture and (3) using green manure legumes instead of mineral fertilisers (Soussana et al, 2017). Use of exogenous amendments in the form of farm manure and compost may be part of improved nutrient management practices while additionally contributing to increasing SOC stocks (Diacono and Montemurro, 2010).…”

Does Organic Farming Provide a Viable Alternative for Smallholder Rice Farmers in India?

“…Several conventional farmers reported that they reduced fertilizer input when observing that organic farmers in their village got similar yields with organic manures. However, current manure application rates in organic farms seem insufficient to replace nutrient export through crop harvest, and therefore may lead to soil degradation and reduced productivity in the long term [23]. Improvements in manure collection, storing and application as well as increased use of in situ grown green manure can remedy this situation.…”

“…Increased mechanization of field preparation, sowing and weed management would enable farmers to reduce labor input. It also enables them to optimize manure application and increase the utilization of green manure [23]. If farmers shifted from transplanting to direct sowing of paddy, this could reduce work load, but at the expense of somewhat lower yields [30].…”

“…One criticism on the feasibility of organic agriculture, especially with respect to smallholder farmers, is the availability of sufficient organic fertilizer sources to meet crop demands [8,42]. To address this concern, a study was conducted in the project area to evaluate the farm-level impacts of subsystem nutrient management actions and to identify locally viable interventions for increased nutrient supply and recycling [23]. Viable interventions including the reduction of nutrient losses through simple and relatively cheap manure management modifications (i.e., using straw bedding to capture livestock urine, covering farmyard manure stockpiles with plastic sheeting, enclosed biogas slurry storage, and using biogas slurry for improved compost production), in situ green manuring, and purchasing farmyard manure identified through this study are now being promoted by extension services.…”

Impact of Mechanical Transplanting on Rice Productivity and Profitability- Review

“…Recently many research has emphasized the challenges with manual transplanting in puddled soil comprising huge yield differences (Lobell et al, 2009) compared to other establishment techniques, poor water and nutrient use efficiencies (Humphreys et al, 2010;Sudhir-Yadav et al, 2011b), emits considerable amounts of greenhouse gases (Wassmann et al, 2004), escalating shortage of man-power (Devkota et al, 2019a,b), and allied augmented pays (Sudhir-Yadav et al, 2017;Bandumula et al, 2018). Together, these vagaries have amplified the workload of women (Akter et al, 2017), resulted into higher production cost and condensed profitability (Ditzler et al, 2018).…”