Adopting conservation agriculture in the rice-wheat system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains: new opportunities for saving water
2002
Gupta, R.K. | Naresh, R.K. | Hobbs, P.R. | Ladha, J.K.
Agricultural policy in the 1960-70s focused on achieving food security through increased coverage of high-yielding varieties, expansion of irrigation, and increased use of external inputs. This enabled rice-wheat to emerge as a major cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), ushering in the "Green Revolution" (GR). GR technologies have remained the cornerstone of the South Asian strategy for food security, rural development, conservation of natural resources, and poverty alleviation. Evidence is now appearing that the rice-wheat system has weakened the natural resource base. The growing realization that agriculture of the post-Green Revolution era will be guided by the need to produce more better-quality food from more marginal-quality land and water resources, besides sustaining environmental quality, only adds to the challenge. Thus, the major challenge for the Rice-Wheat Consortium countries is to develop a rice-wheat system that produces more at less cost and improves profitability and sustainability. This suggests that agriculture in consortium countries needs an infusion of new technologies that are able to tap new sources of productivity growth and are more sustainable. On the basis of driving variables for agricultural development, the IGP have been delineated into five relatively homogeneous transects to address location-specific rice-wheat system ecology problems. Thematic issues of crop improvement, water management, nutrient management, weed and pest management, and policy research are integrated with crop establishment and tillage, which are at the center of all agronomic and crop management practices developed for the RW system ecology within each transect for sustained production, diversification, and enhanced system productivity. This paper will describe in a matrix the relative potential of improved technologies, particularly in relation to water savings and water-use efficiency.
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