Bundling subsurface drip irrigation with no-till provides a window to integrate mung bean with intensive cereal systems for improving resource use efficiency

作者：Manish Kakraliya, H.S. Jat, Suresh Kumar, Suresh K. Kakraliya, Manoj Kumar Gora, Tanuja Poonia, Satyendra Kumar, Madhu Choudhary, Mahesh K. Gathala, Parbodh Chander Sharma, M.L. Jat · 发表于：Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3389/fsufs.2024.1292284 · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Rice Cultivation and Yield Improvement、Irrigation Practices and Water Management、Plant responses to water stress

The future of South Asia’s major production system (rice–wheat rotation) is at stake due to continuously aggravating pressure on groundwater aquifers and other natural resources which will further intensify with climate change. Traditional practices, conventional tillage (CT) residue burning, and indiscriminate use of groundwater with flood irrigation are the major drivers of the non-sustainability of rice–wheat (RW) system in northwest (NW) India. For designing sustainable practices in intensive cereal systems, we conducted a study on bundled practices (zero tillage, residue mulch, precise irrigation, and mung bean integration) based on multi-indicator (system productivity, profitability, and efficiency of water, nitrogen, and energy) analysis in RW system. The study showed that bundling conservation agriculture (CA) practices with subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) saved ~70 and 45% (3-year mean) of irrigation water in rice and wheat, respectively, compared to farmers’ practice/CT practice (pooled data of Sc1 and Sc2; 1,035 and 318 mm ha −1 ). On a 3-year system basis, CA with SDI scenarios (mean of Sc5–Sc8) saved 35.4% irrigation water under RW systems compared to their respective CA with flood irrigation (FI) scenarios (mean of Sc3 and Sc4) during the investigation irrespective of residue management. CA with FI system increased the water productivity (WPi) and its use efficiency (WUE) by ~52 and 12.3% (3-year mean), whereas SDI improved by 221.2 and 39.2% compared to farmer...