Effects of Root Growth of Deep and Shallow Rooting Rice Cultivars in Compacted Paddy Soils on Subsequent Rice Growth

Rice is often grown as multiple seasons in one year,alternating between flooded and upland systems.A major constraint,introduced from the flooded system,is a plough pan that may decrease rooting depth and productivity of follow-on upland rice.Roots penetrating the plough pan under flooded rice system can leave a legacy of weaker root growth pathways.Deeper rooting rice cultivars could have a bigger impact,but no direct evidence is available.To explore whether a deep rather than a shallow rooting rice cultivar grown in a flooded cropping cycle benefited deeper root growth of follow-on rice in an upland,reduced tillage cropping cycle,a simulated flooded paddy in greenhouse was planted with deep(Black Gora) and shallow(IR64) rooting cultivars and a plant-free control.Artificial plough pans were made in between the topsoil and subsoil to form different treatments with no plough pan(0.35 MPa),soft plough pan(1.03 MPa) and hard plough pan(1.70 MPa).After harvest of this ‘first season’ rice,the soil was drained and undisturbed to simulate zero-tillage upland and planted rice cultivar BRRI Dhan 28.The overall root length density(RLD),root surface area,the numbers of root tips and branching of BRRI Dhan 28 did not vary between plough pan and no plough pan treatments.Compared with the shallow rooting rice genotype,the deep rooting rice genotype as ‘first season’ crop produced 19% greater RLD,34% greater surface area and 29% more branching of BRRI Dhan 28 in the subsoil.In the topsoil,however,BRRI Dhan 28 had 28% greater RLD,35% greater surface area and 43% more branching for the shallow rather than deep rooting genotype planted in the ‘first season’.The results suggested that rice cultivar selection for a paddy cycle affects root growth of a follow-on rice crop grown under no-till,with benefits to subsoil access from deep rooting cultivars and topsoil proliferation for shallow rooting cultivars.

Climate change adaptation, greenhouse gas mitigation and economic profitability of conservation agriculture: Some examples from cereal systems of Indo-Gangetic Plains

Achieving sustainability of the cereal system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains（IGP）of India under progressive climate change and variability necessitates adoption of practices and technologies that increase food production,adaptation and mitigation in a sustainable way.This paper examines conservation agriculture（CA）from the perspective of：（i）increased yield and farm income,（ii）adaptation to heat and water stresses,and（iii）reduction in greenhouse gas（GHGs）emissions.The analyses and conclusions are based on the literature and evidences from a large number of on-station as well as farmers’field trials on CA in the cereal systems of IGP.Our analyses show that CA-based system substantially reduces the production cost（up to 23%）but produces equal or even higher than conventional system;thereby increasing economic profitability of production system.CA-based production systems also moderated the effect of high temperature（reduced canopy temperature by 1–4°C）and increased irrigation water productivity by 66–100%compared to traditional production systems thus well adapting to water and heat stress situations of IGP.Our continuous monitoring of soil flux of CO2,N2O and CH4 revealed that CA-based rice-wheat systems emit 10–15%less GHGs than conventional systems.This is the first time that CA and its components are synthesized and analyzed from food security-climate change nexus.From this holistic analysis,we suggest that wide-scale promotion of suitable CA practices by integrating into national agriculture development strategy is a way forward to address food security,climate change adaptation and mitigation challenges faced by present agriculture.

Effect of Interplanting with Zero Tillage and Straw Manure on Rice Growth and Rice Quality

The interplanting with zero-tillage of rice, i.e. direct sowing rice 10-20 days before wheat harvesting, and remaining about 30-cm high stubble after cutting wheat or rice with no tillage, is a new cultivation technology in wheat-rice rotation system. To study the effects of interplanting with zero tillage and straw manure on rice growth and quality, an experiment was conducted in a wheat-rotation rotation system. Four treatments, i.e. ZIS （Zero-tillage, straw manure and rice interplanting）, Zt （Zero-tillage, no straw manure and rice interplanting）, PTS （Plowing tillage, straw manure and rice transplanting）, and PT （Plowing tillage, no straw manure and rice transplanting）, were used. ZtS reduced plant height, leaf area per plant and the biomass of rice plants, but the biomass accumulation of rice at the late stage was quicker than that under conventional transplanting cultivation. In the first year （2002）, there was no significant difference in rice yield among the four treatments. However, rice yield decreased in interplanting with zero-tillage in the second year （2003）. Compared with the transplanting treatments, the number of filled grains per panicle decreased but l000-grain weight increased in interplanting with zero-tillage, which were the main factors resulting in higher yield, tnterplanting with zero-tillage improved the milling and appearance qualities of rice. The rates of milled and head rice increased while chalky rice rate and chalkiness decreased in interplanting with zero-tillage. Zero-tillage and interplanting also affected rice nutritional and cooking qualities. In 2002, ZIS showed raised protein content, decreased amylose content, softer gel consistency, resulting in improved rice quality. In 2003, zero-tillage and interplanting decreased protein content and showed similar amylose content as compared with transplanting treatments. Moreover, protein content in PTS was obviously increased in comparison with the other three treatments. The rice in interplanting with zero-tillage treatments had higher peak viscosity and breakdown, lower setback, showing better rice taste quality. The straw manure had no significant effect on rice viscosity under interplanting with zero-tillage, but had the negative influence on the rice taste quality under transplanting with plowing tillage.