Climate Smart Agriculture Practices

Water saving climate smart crops and management practice

Nearly 90% cultivated area in North-west India comprising the food bowl states of Punjab, Haryana and Western Utter Pradesh is cultivated with rice and wheat crops grown in a sequence. This cropping system over the years has resulted in drawdown of ground water, deterioration in soil quality and enhanced release of green house gases. A long term experiment has been initiated at the experimental farm to find the alternative less water requiring crops and their management practices to replace rice and wheat, the two water guzzling crops. The alternate crops being tried during Kharif (June-October) included treatments: sole maize, sole soybean, maize and soybean on rainfed bunds and rice in the furrows, ladyfinger on bunds and spinach in furrows. Similarly during Rabi (October to May) sole wheat on bunds, wheat on bunds and winter-maize in furrows, mustard on bunds; and cauliflower on bunds and fenugreek in furrows. The soil of the experimental site is reclaimed sodic soil having high pH in the subsurface layers, low in organic matter and available nitrogen, medium in phosphorus and potash. The quality of the tube well water used for irrigation was normal. The preliminary results indicated that maize and soybean during Kharif and mustard, gram and lentil in Rabi have the potential to replace part of the area currently under rice-wheat cultivation in North-west India. Following ridge-furrow planting techniques helped to save about 30% irrigation water and also two crops are possible with the same quantity of water. Growing legume and cereal crop together helped to build up soil fertility in terms of increased organic carbon and available nutrients. Planting chickpea and lentil on bunds and winter-maize (a crop highly sensitive to frost during winter) in furrows provided resilience to maize during establishment stage and the crop escaped frost damage cold/wave impact which is usual in winter in north-west India.