Record Details

Sustainability, productivity, profitability and nutritional diversity of six cropping systems under conservation agriculture: A long term study in eastern India

CGSpace

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Sustainability, productivity, profitability and nutritional diversity of six cropping systems under conservation agriculture: A long term study in eastern India
 
Creator Dutta, Swaraj Kumar
Laing, Alison M.
Kumar, Sanjay
Shambhavi, Shweta
Kumar, Sunil
Kumar, Birender
Verma, Dharmendra Kumar
Kumar, Arun
Singh, Ravi Gopal
Gathala, Mahesh Kumar
 
Subject conservation agriculture
maize
proteins
yields
cropping systems
 
Description CONTEXT: Intensive cropping and elevated input use to achieve high crop yields have resulted in the injudicious use of resources and a consequent reduction in profit margins for farmers in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) region of South Asia. In this region rice-wheat (RW) under conventional tillage (CT) management is the most widely cultivated cropping system. While conservation agriculture (CA)-based management practices have been demonstrated to improve cropping system performance, they are considered by many farmers to be risky, and adoption of CA in rice-based cropping systems is low. There has been little agronomic research into alternative cropping systems to develop diversification options appropriate for the EGP. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that shifting from a conventional RW system to crop establishment practices which incorporate CA principles, combined with alternative crops could improve the whole cropping system in terms of productivity, profitability, and nutritional security (as crop protein). METHODS: A long-term experiment evaluated the performance of five maize-based cropping systems under CA-based management relative to CT RW. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: CA-based practices improved the maize equivalent yield (MEY) by 4–15%, protein yield by 21%, input water productivity by 14–29% and the sustainable yield index by 10–11%, relative to the CT RW baseline. Cropping system labour requirements under CT were 12% higher than those under CA. The average cost of production under CT (USD $933) was 13–14% higher than in systems under CA; cropping systems under CA achieved net returns which were 31–34% higher. Diversifying from the traditional RW system to maize-based systems improved performance in all systems except maize-mustard. SIGNIFICANCE: These results demonstrate that while cropping system performance can be improved by applying CA-based management in RW systems, diversifying to maize-based systems in combination with CA may sustainably improve smallholder productivity and profitability while reducing some of the constraints to introducing CA in rice-based systems. These findings are important for the millions of smallholder farmers across the EGP to sustainably improve food and nutrition security for South Asia.
 
Date 2023-04
2023-04-17T16:28:32Z
2023-04-17T16:28:32Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Dutta, S. K., Laing, A., Kumar, S., Shambhavi, S., Kumar, S., Kumar, B., Verma, D. K., Kumar, A., Singh, R. G., & Gathala, M. (2023). Sustainability, productivity, profitability and nutritional diversity of six cropping systems under conservation agriculture: A long term study in eastern India. Agricultural Systems, 207, 103641.
0308-521X
1873-2267
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/130015
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103641
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyrighted; all rights reserved
Limited Access
 
Publisher Elsevier
 
Source Agricultural Systems