On-Farm Economic and Environmental Impact of Zero-Tillage Wheat: A Case of North-West India

Abstract

SUMMARYConducting farmers participatory field trials at 40 sites for 3 consecutive years in four rice-wheat system dominated districts of Haryana state of India, this paper tested the hypothesis that zero tillage (ZT) based crop production emits less greenhouse gases and yet provide adequate economic benefits to farmers compared to the conventional tillage (CT). In each farmer's field, ZT and CT based wheat production were compared side by side for three consecutive years from 2009-10 to 2011-12. In assessing the mitigation potential of ZT, we examined the differences in input use and crop management, especially those contributing to GHGs emissions, between ZT wheat and CT wheat. We employed Cool Farm Tool (CFT) to estimate emission of GHGs from various wheat production activities. In order to assess economic benefits, we examined the difference in input costs, net returns and cost-benefit analysis of wheat production under CT and ZT. Results show that farmers can save approximately USD 79 ha −1 in terms of total production costs and increase net revenue of about USD 97.5 ha −1 under ZT compared to CT. Similarly, benefit-cost ratio under ZT is 1.43 against 1.31 under CT. Our estimate shows that shifting from CT to ZT based wheat production reduces GHG emission by 1.5 Mg CO 2 -eq ha −1 season −1 . Overall, ZT has both climate change mitigation and economic benefits, implying the win-win outcome of better agricultural practices.

Soil organic carbon changes after seven years of conservation agriculture in a rice–wheat system of the eastern Indo‐Gangetic Plains

“…Farmers generally perform multiple tillage operations to prepare the field for rice and wheat planting. The intensive tillage in RW systems requires much labour, water and energy, which are becoming more expensive, thus increasing the cost of production resulting in decreased profitability (Aryal et al ., ). Also, farmers remove and/or burn crop residues to facilitate good seedbed preparation.…”

“…Recently, conservation agriculture (CA), an approach based on the principles of minimum soil disturbance, retention of crop residues or any other soil surface cover combined with appropriate crop rotation, has emerged as an important management strategy to address many of the pressing challenges confronting intensive RW systems in the IGP. CA not only increases farm productivity by reducing the cost of production (Aryal et al ., ) and increasing yield (Sapkota et al ., ), but also brings favourable changes in soil properties which affect the delivery of ecosystem services including climate regulation through carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions (Palm et al ., ). ZT has been reported to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) by 270 kg/ha/yr (Gangwar et al ., ) to as high as 501 kg/ha/yr (Pandey et al ., ), whereas retention of crop residues has been reported to increase SOC by 90 kg/ha/yr (Gami et al ., ) to 440 kg/ha/yr (Nayak et al ., ).…”

Conservation agriculture based tillage and crop establishment options can maintain farmers’ yields and increase profits in South Asia's rice–maize systems: Evidence from Bangladesh

“…Nonetheless, several large scale adoption surveys in neighboring India report lower production costs, higher net returns and benefit cost ratio (BCR), and lower water, labour and energy requirements for zero-tilled compared to the conventionally-tilled wheat, indicating that farmers are motivated by more than yield (Erenstein and Laxmi, 2008;Jat et al, 2014;Saharawat et al, 2010). In other studies, shifting from conventional tillage to zero tillage in wheat decreased input costs by 20-59% and increased net revenue by 28-33% (Aryal et al, 2014;Kumar et al, 2013a,b). In contrast, a few studies also showed little difference or even lower wheat yield under zero tillage than conventional tillage (Tahir et al, 2008;Tripathi et al, 2007).…”

Tillage, residue and nitrogen management effects on methane and nitrous oxide emission from rice–wheat system of Indian Northwest Indo-Gangetic Plains

“…The Ca technologies are also reported to reduce GHG emission mainly due to reduced use of the inputs and also by modifying soil environment aryal et al 2015). Tillage and crop establishment, residue and water management, and timing and method of N application practices are known to affect emissions of GHGs from soil.…”