Abstract:India will need to produce 30% more wheat by 2050, and these gains must principally come from intensification in eastern India where low productivity is common. Through a dense network of on-farm surveys for the rice–wheat system in this region, we show that contemporary wheat sowing dates have a central influence on achieved and attainable yields, superseding all other crop management, soil and varietal factors. We estimate that untapped wheat production potential will increase by 69% with achievable adjustme… Show more
“…3 ). Although our models do not control for unobserved variables, agronomic studies in these systems have consistently shown that planting dates, fertilizer, varieties, soil types and especially irrigation are consistently the most important predictors for yield ( Devkota et al, 2021 ; McDonald et al, 2022 ). Fig.…”
“…3 ). Although our models do not control for unobserved variables, agronomic studies in these systems have consistently shown that planting dates, fertilizer, varieties, soil types and especially irrigation are consistently the most important predictors for yield ( Devkota et al, 2021 ; McDonald et al, 2022 ). Fig.…”
“…population has some of the highest rates of malnutrition and rural poverty (TCI, 2022), coupled with some of the highest crop yield gaps in India (Jain et al, 2017;Pathak et al, 2003;TCI, 2022). Both private and public investments are working to close yield gaps through improved agronomic management, such as timely wheat planting (McDonald et al, 2022) and expanding the adoption of hybrid rice (Spielman, Ward, & Kolady, 2017).…”
In 2019, the Government of India launched the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) to address the pervasive problem of poor air quality and the burdens it creates for public health, particularly in the 122 non-attainment cities that exceed national air quality standards. In much of Northern India, achieving and sustaining air quality improvements requires coordinated efforts to prevent agricultural burning of crop residues. Historically, rice residue burning has been most prevalent in Northwestern IGP (Indo-Gangetic Plain) but the practice is rapidly expanding into the populous Eastern IGP states, including Bihar, with uncertain consequences for regional air quality. This research has three objectives: (1) characterize historical rice residue burning trends since 2002 over space and time in Bihar State, (2) project future burning trajectories to 2050 under ‘business as usual’ and alternative scenarios of change, and (3) simulate air quality outcomes under each scenario to estimate public health burdens. Historical trends were modelled and extended to mid-century burning projections, which were coupled with the Community Earth System Model (CESM v2.1.0) to characterize air quality impacts under each scenario. These analyses suggest that contemporary Bihar State burning levels contribute a small daily average proportion (8.1%) of the fine particle pollution load (i.e. PM2.5, particles < = 2.5 μm) during the burning months, but up to as much as 62% on the worst of winter days in Bihar’s capital region. With a projected 142% ‘business as usual’ increase in burning prevalence anticipated for 2050, Bihar’s capital region may experience the equivalent of 30 PM2.5 additional exceedance days, according to the WHO standard, due to rice residue burning alone in the October to December period. If historical burning trends intensify and Bihar resembles the Northwest States of Punjab and Haryana by 2050, 46 days would exceed the WHO standard for PM2.5 in Bihar’s capital region.
“…Zero tillage, minimum tillage or use of happy seeder are alternatives to traditional tillage practices in rice-wheat cropping system ( Acharya et al., 2011 ). Zero tillage facilitates the sowing 10-15 days earlier which helps in escaping the terminal heat stress and results in yield gain by 10-25% in EGP ( Joshi et al., 2007c ; McDonald et al., 2022 ). Early sowing is effective in reducing SB, subjected to selection of suitable variety for early sowing as 1) the genotypes must have capacity to tolerate high temperature at early crop growth stage; 2) proper management of foliar blight diseases; as sometimes higher leaf bight incidence was observed upon early sowing due to high residual moisture and humidity ( Duveiller, 2004 ).…”
Spot blotch (SB) caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana (teleomorph Cochliobolus sativus) is one of the devastating diseases of wheat in the warm and humid growing areas around the world. B. sorokiniana can infect leaves, stem, roots, rachis and seeds, and is able to produce toxins like helminthosporol and sorokinianin. No wheat variety is immune to SB; hence, an integrated disease management strategy is indispensable in disease prone areas. A range of fungicides, especially the triazole group, have shown good effects in reducing the disease, and crop-rotation, tillage and early sowing are among the favorable cultural management methods. Resistance is mostly quantitative, being governed by QTLs with minor effects, mapped on all the wheat chromosomes. Only four QTLs with major effects have been designated as Sb1 through Sb4. Despite, marker assisted breeding for SB resistance in wheat is scarce. Better understanding of wheat genome assemblies, functional genomics and cloning of resistance genes will further accelerate breeding for SB resistance in wheat.
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