Record Details

Conservation agriculture in dryland ecosystem: Prospects and opportunities

KRISHI: Publication and Data Inventory Repository

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Conservation agriculture in dryland ecosystem: Prospects and opportunities
Not Available
 
Creator Sammi Reddy, K., Pratibha, G., Sharma, K. L., Srinivas, K., Indoria, A. K., Kundu, S., Prasad, J. V. N. S., Gopinath, K. A. and Singh, V. K
 
Subject Conservation agriculture; Farmers’ participation; Rainfed regions; Zero tillage
 
Description Not Available
Conservation agriculture (CA) comprises zero or reduced or minimum tillage, crop–residue retention and crop
rotation which offers an alternative sustainable system to conventional tillage (CT) without crop–residue retention or
with residue burning. The literature available on CA in rainfed dryland areas has been reviewed critically with a particular reference to India. Unlike irrigated systems, very limited research work has been done on CA in rainfed areas. In majority of studies under rainfed conditions, zero tillage (ZT) or reduced tillage (RT) or minimum tillage (MT)
resulted in lower mean crop yield as compared to CT after 4–15 years of experimentation on Alfisols, Vertisols and
Inceptisols. The reduction in yield under ZT/ MT/ RT was probably due to less infiltration of water and poor root
growth owing to compact surface and sub–surface and higher weed growth. The quantity of crop–residue retained
in rainfed crop rotations was not sufficient to improve the performance of MT in highly degraded, very shallow and
poor–fertile soils. The review further indicated that retention of 4–6 t/ha crop–residue under MT resulted in higher
yields of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]–cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] rotation throughout the experimentation. Undoubtedly, ZT or RT or MT with retention of residue at any rate maintained better soil physical,
chemical and biological quality and higher organic C pool, nutrient pool and their availability. Therefore, under
rainfed conditions, MT or RT with higher dose of N application or soil–moisture conservation intervention with desired limits of soil disturbance was found to be a viable option to produce sufficient quantities of crop–residue to retain and sustain higher crop yields while maintaining better soil quality. Very limited on–farm trials were conducted
to evaluate CA practices on farmers’ fields in rainfed areas. Therefore, packaging efficient practices of different
components of location–specific CA such as tillage level, zero till planter–cum–herbicide applicators, and weed, nutrient and pest management for validating on farmers’ fields in different rainfed crop rotations should be the major
focus in future.
Not Available
 
Date 2023-02-14T03:47:39Z
2023-02-14T03:47:39Z
2020-03-01
 
Type Research Paper
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/76162
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher Not Available