Improving Resource Utilization Efficiency and Productivity in Rice-wheat Cropping System through Cutting Edge Technologies: An Overview

Abstract

Rice-wheat cropping system is one of the major cropping system practiced in South Asia on 13.5 m hectares area, 10.3 million hectares of which are in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). The Indian Rice-Wheat Cropping System (RWCS) accounts for more than 70% of the country’s total grain production which is essential for ensuring national food security. Widely used RCT known as Zero Tillage (ZT) in which wheat is directly sown into the undisturbed soil after rice harvested. The Adoption of Furrow Irrigated Raised Bed System (FIRBS) in wheat production saves 30-40% water, seed use by 25-30% and nutrients use by 25% without reducing yield. The RCTs involve residue management (mainly residue retention), crop diversification and no- or minimum tillage with direct seeding and bed planting. AWD in rice save water by 10 to 30% while reducing seepage and deep drainage losses and Brown manuring is highly beneficial for weed control, water and soil conservation and nutrient supplementation. The cultivation of aerobic rice is a new system of growing in non-flooded, non-puddled soils, with high external inputs using innovative technique of aerobic rice that require less water than transplanted rice. A simple and inexpensive diagnostic tool leaf colour chart can be used for monitoring the relative greenness as a measure of the plant N status. Thus, it can be concluded that RCT adoption improving soil health, water use efficiency and nutrient use efficiency with higher sustained yields which leads to sustainable improvements in RWCS. By saving on labour, time, diesel, fertilisers, pesticides, and farm power, resource conservation technologies lower the cost of farming and also lessen environmental pollution.