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.

Changes in soil biochemical indicators at different wheat growth stages under conservation-based sustainable intensification of rice-wheat system

Soil microbes play critical roles in soil biogeochemistry, soil biological health and crop productivity. The current study evaluated the effects of tillage and residue management on changes in soil biochemical indicators at different growth stages of wheat after 5 years of rice-wheat system. Nine treatment combinations of tillage, crop establishment and crop residue management included three main plot treatments applied to rice:(1) conventional till direct dry seeded rice(CTDSR),(2) zero till direct dry seeded rice(ZTDSR), and(3) conventional puddled manual transplanted rice(CTPTR) and three subplot treatments in subsequent wheat:(1) conventional tillage with rice residue removed(CTW-R),(2) zero tillage with rice residue removed(ZTW-R) and(3) zero tillage with rice residue retained as surface mulch(ZTW+R). Irrespective of rice treatments, ZTW+R treatment had higher soil biochemical indicators compared with ZTW-R and CTW-R at all the growth stages of wheat. Generally, all the biochemical indicators were the highest at the flowering stage of wheat. Residual effect of rice treatments was also significant on biochemical quotients in wheat, which were the highest under ZTDSR followed by CTDSR and CTPTR. The present study provided three sensitive and reliable biochemical indicators(microbial biomass, basal soil respiration and microbial quotient) which respond rapidly to change in tillage and residue management practices in RWS of South Asia.