Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system

Maximizing productivity of the rice–wheat (RW) system is a major challenge for achieving food security in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Ideally, productivity should increase along with increasing farm profits while sustaining or enhancing the natural resource base. However, resear...

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Main Authors: Chaki, Apurbo K., Gaydon, Donald S., Dalal, Ram C., Bellotti, William D., Gathala, Mahesh Kumar, Hossain, Akbar, Menzies, Neal W.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Springer 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126862
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author Chaki, Apurbo K.
Gaydon, Donald S.
Dalal, Ram C.
Bellotti, William D.
Gathala, Mahesh Kumar
Hossain, Akbar
Menzies, Neal W.
author_browse Bellotti, William D.
Chaki, Apurbo K.
Dalal, Ram C.
Gathala, Mahesh Kumar
Gaydon, Donald S.
Hossain, Akbar
Menzies, Neal W.
author_facet Chaki, Apurbo K.
Gaydon, Donald S.
Dalal, Ram C.
Bellotti, William D.
Gathala, Mahesh Kumar
Hossain, Akbar
Menzies, Neal W.
author_sort Chaki, Apurbo K.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Maximizing productivity of the rice–wheat (RW) system is a major challenge for achieving food security in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Ideally, productivity should increase along with increasing farm profits while sustaining or enhancing the natural resource base. However, research focused on increasing the productivity and profitability of the RW system while considering long-term system sustainability is lacking from the EGP. Here, we show that using the process-based cropping system model Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) (earlier robustly validated in these environments), maximization of target variables (e.g. production, farm profit, water productivity) can be achieved by modifying the agronomic management currently recommended for RW farmers in the region. Our analysis demonstrates conservation agriculture-based intensification, through the addition of mungbean with modified irrigation and increased nitrogen fertilization, increases not only the system production (34%), farm profit (39%), and water productivity (54%), but also the soil organic carbon (31%) and total soil nitrogen (52%) in the 0–15 cm soil layer. In contrast, conventional tillage-based intensification increases system productivity but not sustainability. We found the ideal agronomic management varied across different environments for maximizing target variables. Our analysis illustrates the power of validated modeling tools like APSIM and has broader application for farmers globally whose production and sustainability are constrained by inefficient agronomic practices.
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spelling CGSpace1268622023-12-08T19:36:04Z Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system Chaki, Apurbo K. Gaydon, Donald S. Dalal, Ram C. Bellotti, William D. Gathala, Mahesh Kumar Hossain, Akbar Menzies, Neal W. crops resources smallholders sustainable intensification water productivity rice wheat Maximizing productivity of the rice–wheat (RW) system is a major challenge for achieving food security in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Ideally, productivity should increase along with increasing farm profits while sustaining or enhancing the natural resource base. However, research focused on increasing the productivity and profitability of the RW system while considering long-term system sustainability is lacking from the EGP. Here, we show that using the process-based cropping system model Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) (earlier robustly validated in these environments), maximization of target variables (e.g. production, farm profit, water productivity) can be achieved by modifying the agronomic management currently recommended for RW farmers in the region. Our analysis demonstrates conservation agriculture-based intensification, through the addition of mungbean with modified irrigation and increased nitrogen fertilization, increases not only the system production (34%), farm profit (39%), and water productivity (54%), but also the soil organic carbon (31%) and total soil nitrogen (52%) in the 0–15 cm soil layer. In contrast, conventional tillage-based intensification increases system productivity but not sustainability. We found the ideal agronomic management varied across different environments for maximizing target variables. Our analysis illustrates the power of validated modeling tools like APSIM and has broader application for farmers globally whose production and sustainability are constrained by inefficient agronomic practices. 2022-12 2023-01-11T14:33:11Z 2023-01-11T14:33:11Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126862 en Limited Access Springer Chaki, A.K., Gaydon, D.S., Dalal, R.C., Bellotti, W.D., Gathala, M.K., Hossain, A., and Menzies, N.W. 2022. Achieving the win–win: Targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 42(6), 113.
spellingShingle crops
resources
smallholders
sustainable intensification
water productivity
rice
wheat
Chaki, Apurbo K.
Gaydon, Donald S.
Dalal, Ram C.
Bellotti, William D.
Gathala, Mahesh Kumar
Hossain, Akbar
Menzies, Neal W.
Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system
title Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system
title_full Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system
title_fullStr Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system
title_full_unstemmed Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system
title_short Achieving the win–win: targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice–wheat system
title_sort achieving the win win targeted agronomy can increase both productivity and sustainability of the rice wheat system
topic crops
resources
smallholders
sustainable intensification
water productivity
rice
wheat
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126862
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