Scientific Interventions to Improve Land and Water Productivity for Climate-Smart Agriculture in South Asia

2019 ◽  
pp. 499-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajan Bhatt ◽  
Akbar Hossain ◽  
Pritpal Singh
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Smart Agriculture

Zero Tillage for Mitigating Global Warming Consequences and Improving Livelihoods in South Asia

2017 ◽  
pp. 126-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajan Bhatt
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Zero Tillage ◽  
Climatic Regions ◽  
Smart Agriculture

Declining land and water productivity, rising global temperature, underground water availability, energy, labour availability, increasing cost of production, burning of crop residues and changing climatic conditions are major challenges faced by both scientists and farmers in South Asia. To address these challenges, different resource conservation technologies were promoted in the South Asia. Zero tillage was generally practiced in the region, which retains the previous crop residues on the soil surface while establishing main crop viz. wheat seeds directly drilled in standing anchored rice straw. Further such tillage systems required no pre-sowing irrigation which further improves the irrigation water productivity. The current chapter reviews the consequences of zero tillage on soil physical, chemical and biological properties, land and water productivity and in mitigating global warming potential in texturally divergent soils under different agro-climatic regions. Our review revealed that positive effects of zero tillage are visible only after 4-5 years up to which farmer might have to sacrifice some yields. Thus, there is need to recommend an integrated climate smart agriculture package/approach, which effectively solves weed pressure problems, helps in improving land and water productivity, mitigates global warming consequences and uplifts livelihoods in South Asia.

scholarly journals Portfolios of Climate Smart Agriculture Practices in Smallholder Rice-Wheat System of Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains—Crop Productivity, Resource Use Efficiency and Environmental Foot Prints

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1561
Author(s):  
Deepak Bijarniya ◽  
C. M. Parihar ◽  
R. K. Jat ◽  
Kailash Kalvania ◽  
S. K. Kakraliya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Conventional Tillage ◽  
Energy Productivity ◽  
System Productivity ◽  
Environmental Footprints ◽  
Farm Profitability ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Smart Agriculture

The conventional tillage based rice-wheat system (RWS) in Indo-genetic plains (IGP) of South Asia is facing diverse challenges like increase in production cost and erratic climatic events. This results in stagnated crop productivity and declined farm profitability with increased emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, 3-year multi-location farmer’s participatory research trial was conducted to assess the impact of crop establishment and residue management techniques on crop productivity, economic profitability and environmental footprints in RWS. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of combinations of improved agronomic technologies compared to farmer’s practices (FP) on crop productivity, profitability, resource use efficiency and environmental footprints. The experiment had six scenarios that is, S1-Farmer’s practice; Conventional tillage (CT) without residue; S2-CT with residue, S3- Reduced tillage (RT) with residue + Recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF); S4-RT/zero tillage (ZT) with residue + RDF, S5-ZT with residue + RDF + green seeker + tensiometer + information & communication technology + crop insurance and S6- S5 + site specific nutrient management. Climate smart agriculture practices (CSAPs; mean of S4, S5 and S6) increase system productivity and farm profitability by 10.5% and 29.4% (on 3 yrs’ mean basis), whereas, improved farmers practices (mean of S2 and S3) resulted in only 3.2% and 5.3% increments compared to farmer’s practice (S1), respectively. On an average, CSAPs saved 39.3% of irrigation water and enhanced the irrigation and total water productivity by 53.9% and 18.4% than FP, respectively. In all the 3-years, CSAPs with high adaptive measures enhanced the energy-use-efficiency (EUE) and energy productivity (EP) by 43%–54% and 44%–61%, respectively than FP. In our study, global warming potential (GWP), GHG emission due to consumption energy and greenhouse gas intensity were recorded lower by 43%, 56% and 59% in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) with high adaptive measures than farmers practices (3652.7 kg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1, 722.2 kg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1 and 718.7 Mg kg−1 CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1). The findings of the present study revealed that CSA with adaption of innovative measures (S6) improved 3-year mean system productivity by 10.5%, profitability by 29.4%, water productivity and energy productivity by 18.3% and 48.9%, respectively than FP. Thus, the results of our 3-year farmer’s participatory study suggest that in a RW system, climate smart agriculture practices have better adaptive capacity and could be a feasible option for attaining higher yields, farm profitability, energy-use efficiency and water productivity with sustained/improved environmental quality in smallholder production systems of Eastern IGP of India and other similar agro-ecologies of South Asia. Finally, the adoption of these CSAPs should be promoted in the RW rotation of IGP to ensure food security, restoration of soil health and to mitigate climate change, the key sustainable development goals (SDGs).

scholarly journals Intervention of Climate Smart Technologies for Improving Water Productivity in an Enormous Water Use Rice-Wheat System of South-Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 27-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akbar Hossain ◽  
Rajan Bhatt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Short Duration ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Cropping System ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Land Leveling ◽  
Smart Technologies

I Intensively practices rice-wheat (R-W) cropping system (RWCS) in South-Asia is suffering from many sustainability issues such as micronutrient deficiencies, labour scarcity, production cost, declining land, declining groundwater level and water productivity along with declining soil health.  Climate change further complex the things in one or other way. Therefore, the intervention of climate smart technologies are urgent for improving water productivity in an enormous water use RWCS of South-Asia. Although, farmers are confused regarding picking of suitable climate smart technology (CST) viz., laser land leveling, un-puddled direct-seeded rice (UPDSR), soil matric potential based irrigation, double zero tillage in wheat followed by rice, raised bed planting, short duration cultivars and correct transplantation time, for enhancing their livelihoods through increasing land and water productivity on one side and mitigating global warming consequences on other. Performance of these technologies is both site and situation specific, and care must be taken in practicing them. Most of them cutting down the drainage losses, which further reduces recharging of soil profile which is not required in water stressed regions while these might be termed as energy-saving technologies; otherwise used to withdraw water from the deeper soil depths. These CST are also useful for waterlogged regions. However, CST viz. correct transplantation time and short duration cultivars partition higher fraction of ET water (evapotranspiration) from E (evaporation) to T (transpiration) component which further favour higher grain yields and thus, higher water productivity. Therefore, it is crucial for the introduction of CST for improving agricultural and water productivity in the era of climate change in an enormous water use RWCS of South-Asia.

scholarly journals Scaling up climate-smart agriculture: lessons learned from South Asia and pathways for success

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neufeldt H ◽  
◽  
Negra C ◽  
Hancock J ◽  
Foster K ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Smart Agriculture

Improving Water Productivity of Wheat-Based Cropping Systems in South Asia for Sustained Productivity

2014 ◽  
pp. 157-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yadvinder-Singh ◽  
Surinder S. Kukal ◽  
Mangi Lal Jat ◽  
Harminder S. Sidhu
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Water Productivity

scholarly journals Development and Evaluation of an Emitter with a Low-Pressure Drip-Irrigation System for Sustainable Eggplant Production

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarker ◽  
Hossain ◽  
Murad ◽  
Biswas ◽  
Akter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Drip Irrigation ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Operating Pressure ◽  
Water Application ◽  
Sustainable Crop Production

Drip-irrigation can improve uniformity in water distribution, water use efficiency, and crop productivity in the saline and nonsaline regions of South Asia and in Bangladesh where the availability and quality of water resources are scare for sustainable crop production. However, the currently available drip-irrigation systems (DIS) have limitations especially in the design and field performance of emitters. A new type of emitter with low pressure (gravity) was developed, installed and evaluated using the locally produced materials in two locations (nonsaline and saline zones) of Bangladesh. The emitter discharge rate was measured for the variable operating heads of 1.5, 2, and 2.5 meter (m) with 0%, 1%, and 1.5% slopes with eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), a commonly grown vegetable in the region. The tested parameters of the emitter were manufacturer coefficient of variation (CVm), emission uniformity (EU), coefficient of uniformity (CU), and the statistical uniformity (Us) of water application. Our results reveal that the discharge rates of the emitter varied from 3 to 5 L h−1 under the operating head of 1.5 to 2.5 m with the slope of 0–1.5%, with better performance of the DIS at 2 m operating pressure head and for slopes of 0% and 1%. The CU of all the test parameters was more than 80%, implying that the DIS was designed and installed with appropriate dimensions for the efficient application and distribution of water to the individual plants, with the emitter performance classified as fair to excellent considering water application and distribution, as well as crop yield. The new emitter used for DIS in field conditions showed that the eggplant yield, water use, and water productivity were greater by 4.6%, 38%, and 70%, respectively, compared to farmers’ irrigation practice. We conclude that the DIS has a great prospect to save water, and could be a convenient irrigation water application method for sustainable crop production in saline and nonsaline regions of Bangladesh and similar soil and climatic conditions in South Asia.

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