Transcript Slide 1

Conservation Agriculture under different
Agro-ecosystems of India
Tek Sapkota, R K Gupta and ML Jat
Outline
● Challenges of Agriculture
● CA as paradigm shift in production system
● Major AEZ, soil types, crops and production
challenges
● Strategic interventions to address the major
production challenges from the stand point of CA
● Some examples of CA based management to
address the production challenges
● Take home messages
Triple Challenge of Agriculture
• Increase Production
• Adapt to climatic variability
• Mitigation of climate change
Challenge of Agriculture: Food Security
“…..feeding a world population of
9.1 billion people in 2050
would require
raising overall food production
by some
70%
between 2005 and 2050
“In a world of plenty, no
one, not a single person,
should go hungry. But
almost 1 billion still do not
have enough to eat. I want
to see an end to hunger
everywhere within my
lifetime.”
– Ban Ki-moon, United
Production in the developing countries would need to
almost double……”
Challenge of Agriculture: Climate variability risk
Blue: extreme risk, Green: medium to low risk,
Map source: Maplecroft
Challenge of Agr: GHG emission reduction
Forestry – mainly CO2
from deforestation for
more agriculture
Agriculture + forestry:
30% of anthropogenic
GHG emissions
IPCC 4th Assessment Report (2007)
Ag production in India further constrained by:
• Natural resources degradation (water, soil quality)
• Input : output ratio and cost (decreasing FP)
• Increasing cost of energy and other resources
• Competition of Ag sector with other sector for energy,
water and other resources
• Land holding- getting smaller and fragmented
• Agricultural work force- farmers age?
Paradigm Shifts in our production system
From
To
1.
Excessive tillage and soil erosion
● Drastically reduced tillage/erosion
2.
Residue burning or incorporation
● Surface retention of residues
3.
Uneven field levels
● Precisely leveled fields
4.
Free-wheeling of farm machinery
● Controlled traffic
5.
Green manuring (incorporated)
● Brown manuring (surface drying)
6.
Use of ex-situ FYM/composts
● In-situ Use of organics/composts
7.
Crop based management
● System based management
8.
Single or sole crops
● Diversification: Inter-relay crop
9.
Environmentally detrimental
● Environmental friendly
CA to address triple challenges faced by Agriculture
Contributes to increase
food production, adapt to
climatic variability and
have large co-benefit in
mitigation
Adaptation
Food
security
Mitigation
Conservation agriculture systems
Conservation Agriculture defined
1
2
Permanent organic
Minimum mechanical
soil cover
soil disturbance
(retention of adequate
(the minimum soil
disturbance necessary levels of crop residues
on the soil surface)
to sow the seed)
3
Diversified crop rotations
including cover crops
(to help moderate possible
weed, disease and pest
problems)
CA-Location specific and knowledge intentisve
Major AEZ, soil type, major crops and production challenges
Ecosyst
em
AER
States
Represented
Soil types
Major crops
Major
production
constraints
Hot semiarid
4,5. Northern plains
and central highlands,
Gujarat plains
Gujarat,
Haryana,
Rajasthan,
Punjab, UP, MP,
Alluvium
Medium to deep
black soil
Wheat, rice
pulses, maize,
Millet, cotton, S
cane
Declining water
tables, terminal
heat, herbicide
resistance
Subhumid to
humid
9-13, northern plains,
central highlands,
eastern plains and hills
Punjab, UP,
Bihar, Orissa, W.
Bengal,
Jharkhand
Alluvium, Red &
Yellow
Rice, wheat,
PP, S cane,
millets
Soil erosion, water
logging, Declining
water tables,
terminal heat,
gravelly sub-soil
Hot arid
2. Western Plains
3. Deccan plateau
J&K, HP,
Punjab,
Rajasthan,
Gujarat, AP, KN
Desent and
saline,
Red & Black
Millet, sorghum,
fodder
Erratic rainfall,
acute draught,
nutrient imbalance
soil salinity
Hot semiarid
6, 7. Deccan plateau
KN, AP, MP,
Maharashtra
Kerala
Medium to deep
black soil
Millet, oilseed,
rice, cotton, S
cane
High production
cost, dry spells,
narrow workable
range, Low pl
population
Humid to
per Humid
15, 16. Eastern plains
and hills
WB, Assam,
Alluvium
Rice, millets,
maize, potato &
plantation
Soil erosion, small
marginal land,
excessive rainfall
Costal
18,19. eastern and
eastern and
Costal alluvium
Rice, coconut,
Water inundation,
Summary of the major challenges, their cause and
technologies to address them
Production challenges
Cause
Summarize the problems in major category
Dwindling water resources, Climate change, inappropriate
flooding during summer
water management
Nutrient losses through
leaching, run-off, erosion
and emission
Erratic rainfall pattern,
increased temperature,
Lack of weather forecast,
inappropriate technology
transfer
Inappropriate nutrient
management,
blanket application, monoculture,
erratic rainfall
Climate change
Technologies to
address these
challenges
Water Smart
Nutrient Smart
Weather Smart
Lack of adequate infrastructure,
Knowledge Smart
limited use of modern technologies
in technology transfer
GHG emission
Unnecessary fossil fuel burning,
residue burning, Carbon mining
Carbon Smart
Increasing energy demand,
increasing cost of energy
Land fragmentation, unnecessary
tillage, water pumping etc
Energy Smart
Strategic Entry Points for CA and Potential
Interventions: A Conceptual Framework
1. Water
shortages
• Laser land
leveling
• Raised beds
• DSR & remove
puddling
• Micro-irrigation
5. Labor, Energy
shortages, High
production cost
• Minimal tillage
• Zero tillage
• Raised bed
• Double no-till
system
• New Machines
2. Rainwater
Management
•In-situ moisture
conservation
• Groundwater
recharge
•Watershed
approach
6.Diversification
and ‘Fallows’
• Relay/Para
cropping
• Crop substitution
• Cotton –wheat)
• S.Cane –wheat )
• Rice Fallows
3. Nutrient
Imbalances
• Conjunctive
use of nutrient
inputs
• LCC/ SPAD/GS
• Super granules
4. Terminal Heat
tolerance
•
•
•
•
Cultivar choices
Seed priming
Water schedules
Residue manage.
7. Herbicide
resistance /
Weed mgt.
8. Net works and
Capacity Building
• Test new
molecules
• Integrated weed
management
approach
• Crop rotation
• Public –Private
partnerships
• Trainings
• Traveling
seminars
• SMS service
5
Summary of the major challenges, their cause and
technologies to address them
Ecosystem
AER
Major production
constraints
Strategic interventions
Hot semi-arid
4,5. Northern plains
and central highlands,
Gujarat plains
Declining water tables,
terminal heat, herbicide
resistance
Water smart (DSR, alternate cropping,
raised beds), irrgn mgment, LL, residue
mulching, short duration vars, timely
planting, integrated weed mgmt
Sub-humid to
humid
9-13, northern plains,
central highlights,
eastern plains and hills
Soil erosion, water
logging, Declining water
tables, terminal heat,
gravelly sub-soil
Water smart (DSR, alternate cropping,
raised beds, use of residual moisture),
irrgn mgment, LL, residue mulching, short
duration vars, timely planting
Hot arid
2. Western Plains
3. Deccan plateau
Erratic rainfall, acute
draught, nutrient
imbalance, soil salinity
Mulching, Nutrient smart (SSNM), crop
diversification,
Hot semi-arid
6, 7. Deccan plateau
High production cost, dry
spells, narrow workable
range, Low pl population
Zero-tillage, integrated weed management,
SSNM
Humid to per
Humid
15, 16. Eastern plains
and hills
Soil erosion, small
marginal land, excessive
rainfall
Crop diversification, terracing and crop
geometry,
Costal
18,19. eastern and
western coast
Water inundation, saline
marshes
Saline tolerant crops, bed planting
Some examples of CA based
mgmt to address production
challenges in different AEZ
CA beats the heat (NWIGP)
a
a
Source: Jat et al (2012)
b
b
CA requires less water (across IGP west to east)
Management practices
CT 1 irrigation
CT 2 irrigation
CT 3 irrigation
CT 4 irrigation
CT 5 irrigation
ZT without residue 2 Irrigation
ZT full residue 2 irrigation
ZT partial residue 2 irrigation
Wheat Yield (t/ha)
3.75 (+0.79)
3.82 (+0.81)
4.24 (+1.03)
5.50 (+0.10)
5.56 (+0.42)
4.36 (+0.20)
5.19 (+0.29)
4.87 (+0.26)
Source: Results compiled from on station and farmers’ field trials in IGP
Enhancing Productivity of Cotton-Wheat system
● Early and short stature cotton
cultivars
● Slight alteration planters to
increase clearance height to
plant wheat over the cotton
Maize based system to address water issues
Machine transplanting of rice without puddling
Total estimated GHG emission in wheat production
Emission per ha (A)
and per Mg wheat
averaged over two
years (B) under
different nutrient
management
strategies in
conventional and notillage wheat
production systems
Take Home Message
• Transformation in Ag. Production: food security, adaptation and
mitigation
• CA is resource saving production system combined with other
interrelated production practices such as IPM, INM, IWM etc
• CA based production system should be formulated based on
local pedo-climatic and socio-economic condition-but the basic
principles remain the same
• CA based management has been successful under various
production system of different AEZ of India
• CA is knowledge intensive and adoption may be gradual
• Enabling policy environment needed
http://conservacion.cimmyt.org
Thank you
for your
attention