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Reduced tillage and crop diversification can improve productivity and profitability of rice-based rotations of the Eastern Gangetic Plains

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Title Reduced tillage and crop diversification can improve productivity and profitability of rice-based rotations of the Eastern Gangetic Plains
 
Identifier https://hdl.handle.net/11529/10548910
 
Creator Hoque, Muhammad Arshadul
Gathala, Mahesh K.
Timsina, Jagadish
Ziauddin, Md.A.T.M.
Hossain, Mosharraf
Krupnik, Timothy J.
 
Publisher CIMMYT Research Data & Software Repository Network
 
Description Intensive rice (Oryza sativa)-based cropping systems in south Asia provide much of the calorie and protein requirements of low to middle-income rural and urban populations. Intensive tillage practices demand more resources, damage soil quality, and reduce crop yields and profit margins. Crop diversification along with
conservation agriculture (CA)-based management practices may reduce external input use, improve resource-use
efficiency, and increase the productivity and profitability of intensive cropping systems. A field study was
conducted on loamy soil in a sub-tropical climate in northern Bangladesh to evaluate the effects of three tillage
options and six rice-based cropping sequences on grain, calorie, and protein yields and gross margins (GM) for
different crops and cropping sequences. The three tillage options were: (1) conservation agriculture (CA) with all
crops in sequences untilled, (2) alternating tillage (AT) with the monsoon season rice crop tilled but winter
season crops untilled, and (3) conventional tillage (CT) with all crops in sequences tilled. The six cropping sequences were: rice-rice (R-R), rice-mung bean (Vigna radiata) (R-MB), rice-wheat (Triticum aestivum) (R-W), ricemaize (Zea mays) (R-M), rice-wheat-mung bean (R-W-MB), and rice-maize-mung bean (R-M-MB). Over three
years of experimentation, the average monsoon rice yield was 8% lower for CA than CT, but the average winter
crops yield was 13% higher for CA than CT. Systems rice equivalent yield (SREY) and systems calorie and protein
yields were about 5%, 3% and 6%, respectively, higher under CA than CT; additionally, AT added approximately
1% more to these benefits. The systems productivity gain under CA and AT resulted in higher GM by 16% while
reducing the labor and total production cost under CA than CT. The R-M rotation had higher SREY, calorie,
protein yields, and GM by 24%, 26%, 66%, and 148%, respectively, than the predominantly practiced R-R
rotation. The R-W-MB rotation had the highest SREY (30%) and second highest (118%) GM. Considering the
combined effect of tillage and cropping system, CA with R-M rotation showed superior performance in terms of
SREY, protein yield, and GM. The distribution of labor use and GM across rotations was grouped into four
categories: R-W in low-low (low labor use and low GM), R-M in low-high (low labor use and high GM), R-W-MB
and R-M-MB in high-high (high labor use and high GM) and R-R and R-MB in high-low (high labor use and low
GM). In conclusion, CA performed better than CT in different winter crops and cropping systems but not in
monsoon rice. Our results demonstrate the multiple benefits of partial and full CA-based tillage practices
employed with appropriate crop diversification to achieve sustainable food security with greater calorie and
protein intake while maximizing farm profitability of intensive rice-based rotational systems.
 
Subject Agricultural Sciences
Alternate tillage Calorie and protein yields Conservation agriculture Gross margin Labor use Relative yield change Cropping systems diversification
 
Language English
 
Contributor KALVANIA, Kailash Chandra