Crop Establishment,tillage and Water Management Technologies on Crop and Water Productivity in Rice-wheat Cropping System of North West India

Rice receives a large amount of water during land preparation and the growing period, causing poor crop water productivity and lower net benefits. In wheat, excessive tillage operations delay its sowing, resulting in low yields and net returns. Dry seeding of rice and zero tillage in wheat can be expected to reduce water inputs and tillage costs compared with the conventional system of rice-wheat cultivation. This article considers practices that would sustain higher and more stable yields for the rice-wheat system of the region. Farmer's participatory trials were conducted in the North West India for 3 years to evaluate various tillage and crop establishment systems for their efficiency in labor and water, and economic profitability. Yields of rice in conventional puddled transplanting were higher as compared to, unpuddled transplanting, reduced-till transplanting, and direct-seeding systems. Yields of wheat following both conventional or alternative tillage and crop establishment were also equal. Laser-aided land leveling had a significant effect on reducing irrigation water use in rice. Dry-direct seeding and zero-tillage rice-wheat system had a savings in labor and machine use. Zero-tillage transplanted and dry-direct-seeded rice followed by zero-till wheat had a higher net return than the conventional system. The study showed that conventional practice of puddled transplanting could be replaced by unpuddled and zero-till-based crop establishment methods to save water and labor and achieve higher income.