Energy-Carbon Footprint, Productivity and Profitability of Barley Cultivars under Contrasting Tillage-Residue Managements in Semi-Arid Plains of North-West India

Abstract

The use of energy and carbon-intensive inputs in agriculture is unsustainable as it contributes to climate change, adversely affecting crop productivity and human life. Barley, the fourth most important cereal crop, has been restricted to areas with limited resources. Maintaining a balance between productivity, profitability, and sustainability by identifying viable genotypes that adapt well to resource-restricted settings and assessing them under low energy-carbon intensive management is critical. A field experiment was conducted during 2016-17 to 2018-19 to assess the energy-carbon footprint, productivity and profitability of five barley cultivars under two contrasting tillage-residue management systems in semi-arid plains of North-West India. The zero-till + residue retention (ZT+RR) system, among the tillage-residue management options, and RD-2552 followed by BH-946, among the cultivars, provided significantly higher crop productivity and profitability. Although cultivars' responses to the tillage-residue management method were not statistically significant in terms of grain yield, they were in terms of net returns. Therefore, RD-2552 and BH-946 cultivars could provide higher profitability with the ZT+RR system as compared to those with the conventional-till + residue incorporation (CT+RI) system. Although cultivars did not affect the energy-carbon footprints of barley production, tillage-residue management methods did. The ZT+RR system enhanced the energy and carbon use efficiencies of the barley cultivation with lower energy-carbon footprints. The cultivar RD-2552 followed by BH-946 under the ZT+RR system could provide higher productivity and profitability with lower energy-carbon footprints. Adoption of conservation agriculture-based tillage-residue management practices could improve productivity and profitability of barley crop with reduced energy-carbon footprints in the semi-arid ecologies of India.