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World Congress on Conservation Agricutture4-7 February 2009, New Delhi, lndia

Innovations for lmproving Efficiency, Equity and [nvironment

4"

vJ'LIFADEnabling poor rural peopleto overcome poverty

ICAR

World Congress on

,rffir"a-.

New Delhi, India

lnnovations through Conservation Agriculture: Progress and

prospects of participatory Approach i; the lndo-Gangetic Plains

M.L. Jat1, Ravi G. Singh2, Y.S. Saharawat3'4, M'K' Gathal{'V'Kumara' H'S' Sidhus' and Rai Gupta2

lDirectorate of Maize Research, lndian Coincit of Agricultural Research' Pusa Campus' New Delhi' 110 012'

lndia2tnternationat Maize and wheat lmprovement .c.entre

(ctMMYT), lndia office'

NASC Complex, Pusa, New Delhi' 110 012' India

3tnternationat Centre for Soit Fertility ana-A,gricinial .Devetop.me'i 6fOC1' Uyt9.t? Shoals' Atabama' USA

4tnternationat Rice Research tnstiiiTe-tiiRt) tndia office, Pusa New Delhi, 110 012' lndia

sPunjab Agricultural'IJniversity, Ludhiana' Punjab' lndia

The scientilic and technologicalinnovations have been the basisfor promoting agriculturaldevelopment.The historicalfocus of research

on improved agricurturar te-chnorogies has undeniabry u""" rr"""r'"trr. sut, thJt" tii;i"gies have had limited impacts on the intended

beneficiaries, asthecomptexityof their livelihooo anotlrming systems hasnotbeen taken irito consideration' The conservation agriculture

(CA) in its initiat version ot z-eio'-tif f "g"

in Soutn nsia Ouring i dzd's and 8O's is a good example of it wherein during technology development'

little or no attention was paid to the farmers,knowreJgJ for their local settingsand innovations' However, linking dynamic knowledge

systemsolthetarmerswitn icientificbasisof tecnnotolytniougn "eanicipator! Innovation Development'on cAin itsversion of Resource

conserving Technologies (RCTs) played a great rote ii promoiing the adoption of RCTs (3.0 million hectares) for resource conservation'

poverty areviation ano susiaii"Li! o"u"rop-rnent in iriiglted inteisive production systems of the lndo-Gangetic Plains of south Asia'

The Indo_Gangetic prains (rGp) of south Asia encompassing most of northern and eastern India, the most populous

parts of pakistan, t"riiit i.lepal and virtuaily all of Bangladesh is a fertile and most productive region that supports

1/Zth (900 million) population of the world. tn tne lGP, riie and wheat are the major crops grown in rotation on 13'5

m ha area. In addition, the other major crops grown in system are maize, sugarcane, and cotton' The rice-wheat

(RW) production system has played a vital role in food seiurity and remained the cornerstone for food security' rural

development and natural resource conseruation in the region (earoda et al, 1994;Timsina and Connor' 2001; Gupta

et al, 2003; Ladha et al, 2003). But, now evidences of second generation problems such as declining factor

productivity, plateauing crop productivity,,declining soil organic matterlsovt) receding ground water table' diminishing

farm profitability, environmental pollution etc. "started-appearing mainly attributed to monoculture of intensive

conventionalproduction systems (sharma and De Datta, tges; HoOOs anO Gupta,2000; Sharma et al' 2003; Gupta

and sayre, 2oo7).At present, the challenge is to produce more quality food from the same land and water resources'

besides sustaining soil and environmental quality. Thus, the m4or thattenge for the researchers is to develop an

alternative system that produce more at less coi and improve farm profitability and sustainability (Gupta and Seth'

2OO7). This suggests that agriculture systems needs a mixture of new technologies that are able to knock new

sources of productivity growth and are more sustainable. This necessitates more attention on issues of sustainability

and conservation agr'rcilture (CA) in intensive production systems. The cA in its initial version of zero tillage before

1gg0,s could not make much impact at farm level despite of the proven advantages of higher crop productivity,

resource conservation and improving farm profitability because of higher investment co€ts of the imported ZT drills

and design problems associated to suit the location-ipecific adjustments of the local ZT drills. The research efforts

made since mid 1g90's on developing, refining and accelerating the adoption of CA technologies in the IGP has

brought a'Tittage Revolutiorl,in which the 'Falmers Participatory Research Approach'played significant role' In this

p"p"r, progr"ss and prospects of technologies involving one or more of the key elements of CA in the predominant

frdpping ,-y"t"." (rice-wheat, maize-wheat, rice-maize and sugarcane based systems) developed, evaluated and

accelerated in various agro-ecologies of the IGP using innovative modifications in the planters and/or other production

techniques through farmer's participatory research approach are being discussed'

Development, Evaluation and Acceleration of lnnovative CA Techniques '

Research on CA in iryigated production systems of South Asia in its version of zero tillage can 5e traced back

in 1970,s wherein efforts were made to develop the zero tillage technology at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana,

India. However, the technology did not reach at farm level due to the obvious reasons of lack of innovations for

60

j

1

'ia.+

4th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture - February 4-7' 2009

location/situation-specific suitability. In early 1ggos, the cIMMYT made efforts on zero-till technology in the region

with the import of Aitcheson zerotill drills from New Zealand to Pakistan. After Pakistan, four drills were shipped

from New Zeatand to India by CIMMyT during 1988, however, due to expensivelesg of the imported ZT drills and

poor crop establishments du-e to design problms in the locally manufactured ZT drills, the technology could not

made impact at farm level. Thereafter, the innovations started with use of "lnvefted T'openers of Aitcheson ZT drills

in locally manufactured ZT drills in 1gg2. Thereafter, with the farmers' innovative suggestions lor zf technology' a

series of improvements were made to make the technology user-friendly and acceptable at farm level' Later the

commissioning of Rice-Wheat Consorlium, an eco-regional initiative of CGIAR involving NARS of lndia, Pakistan'

Bangladesh aio uepat in 1gg4, took initiatives in close collaboration of NARS of participating countries, manufacturers

and local artisans for development and refinement of RCTs using "Participatory Innovation Development (PlD)"

approach. This plD approach made significant impact on resource conservation and sustainable farming through

development, refinement and adoption of cA in its version of RCTs (3.2 million hectares) in the inigated intensive

production systems of IGP of South Asia (Table 1).

Table 1. Adoption of RCTs in Indo-Gangetic plains of south Asia

Country/Region

lndiaPakistanBangladeshNepalIGP

133.679.910.40.4

224.2

375.8192.110.40.6

579.0

870.2338.9

10.62.7

1222.0

1870.5438.0388,8

12.42709.0

2388.7421.2419.9

14 .33244.0

Source: Gupta and SaYre (2007)

Farmer ParticiPatory Field Trials

Results of large number of farmer's participatory on-farm and on-station trials across the IGP showed that no-

til l wheat in the RW system has shown similar syjtem productivity as of conventional til l wheat in rotation with

puddled transptanted rice but with less water use and more farm profitability (US $ 50 to 100 ha'1) in western through

eastern lcp (RWc, 2006). However, there was no much advantage on soil quality due to intensive tillage during rice

season and no retention of residues. Further, the innovations of second generation planters (Happy seeder, turbo

seeder, rotary disc drill etc) enabled to retain rational amount of residues in notill systems that led to 6 to 20 %

increase in system productivity, 50-100 mm saving of irrigation water, higher farm profitability (US $ 95 to 190tra-1),

enabled regulating terminaltemperature up to 2 6C in wheat (Figure 1), reduced globalwarming potential (GWP)

and improved soil quality. The benefits in respect to water saving, profitability and soil health in the RW system

further improved with development of double no-till technology wherein rice was directly sown using innovative precise

(cupping iype, inclined plate) seed metering systems. Double no{ill practice (no-till direct-seeded rice-No{ill wheat)

naving iational soit cover with residues led to higher (US $ 200 to 240 ha-1) profitability of RW system compared to

puddle transplanted rice-no-til l wheat across the IGP (Table 2). In maize-wheat (MW) rotation, permanent beds

ipg) anO double no-til l using disc openers and inclined plate multi-crop precision seed metering systems resulted

in higher systems'grain and water productivity than the conventional practice. The profitability of MW system (average

of etrs) unOer pBind no{iil (US$ B6g-8Os ha-l) was similar but higher than conventional till (US$ 543 ha'1) and hadposiiive effect on soil health (Jat et al 2OO8a). ln rice-maize (RM) rotation in the eastern lGP, double no-till resultedin17T. increase in RM system productivity compared to conventional til lage. The PB system improved the RM

system productivity by 5% when residues were not retained and to 18% when residues were retained over conventional

tiit praciice (Figure zj. Simitar to cereal production systems, innovative new generation planters also increased the

sugarcane productivity by 21-58/" (Table 3) and farm income by US$ 250 to 300 ha'1 compare$ to conventional

pta-nting techniques in sugarcane based system through advancing cane planting in furrows and wheat or other

winter Jrops on iop ol the iaised beds. In this production system, the disc planters enabled planting of winter crops

as intercrops with cane ratoon having thick cane trash that could increase the farm profitability by 15-20%' Also the

development of innovative bullock drawn and modular power tiller operated ZT planters have made significant impact

on small and marginal farmers, and Hill agriculture where mechanization is very difficult.

The laser assisted precision land leveling, a precursor technology for RCTs was introduced for the first time in

lndia at farm level in western Uttar pradesh during 2001 that has been demonstrated and accelerated in larger

domain in the region. Farmer participatory field trials were carried out on direct seeded (DSR) and puddle transplanted

61

^ M.L. Jat et al.- Innovations through Oonservation Agriculture

q,s&sctsiqg

l'0 ral tlr r'5 fl6 1,B tE tn 1! 1r '3il' t:n l'$

- o- .Resilpretird -o-Resilpremnd

Figure 1. No-till with and without surface retained residues effects on canopy temperature in wheat(ML Jat et al, 2008, UnPublished)

Table 2. Double no-till effects on yield, water productivity and profitability of RW system

Terminal heat

Tillage Systems RW System Yield(Vha)

RW System Input Water Use(cm)

RW System Net Retums(US$/ha)

TRR.ZTWZTDSR-ZTW+ResiduesZTDSR-ZTWRTDSR-ZTW+ResiduesRTDSR-ZTWAverage

1 1 . 9 a11 .5 a1 ' t . 1 b1 1 . 9 a11.4 a11 .6 a

316.7306.8304.9308.6306.3308.7

887 d1128 a1073 b1086 ab'1013 c1037 bc

TPR- Puddled transplanted rice, ZTDSR-Zero till direct seeded rice, RTDSR- Reduced till direct seeded rice, ZTW- Zero till wheat

Source: ML Jat et al (2008), Unpublished

aR-aMFht lm-ffirrme *ffi* *g|*

TTR-Zero till rice, TIM-Zero till maize, PBR-Rice on permanent beds, PBM-Maize on permanent bedsFigure 2. Conventional v/s conservation tillage in rice-maize, an emerging cropping system

(Singh Ravi Gopal et al, 2008, Unpublished)

rice (IPR) during 2005 and 2006 revealed that the yields of both DSR and TPR increased with laser land levelingcompared to traditional land leveling during both the years. The average yield of rice with laser land-leveling was 6

dnd 12/o higher compared to traditional land leveling practices during yr 1 and yr 2, respectively (Table 4). Theaverage water saving in rice under laser leveling compared to traditional leveling was recorded at 9.5 and 6.6 %respectively during 2005 and 2006. Further, it was recorded that the water saving due to laser leveling compared to

t2

l0F5 s'd

F eF

6 4

0

62

4th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture - FebruaW 4;1, 2oo9

Table 3. yield ot wheat and cane under innovative (FIRB) and conventional planting systems, western IGP' lndia

Crop establishment techniques Western Uttar Pradesh HaryanaY

Wheat Caneyield yield

(r ha') (t ha't)

Year-14 Year-2o

Wheatyield

(t ha-')

Caneyield

(t ha")

Wheatyield

(t ha")

Caneyield

(r ha')

FIRB planted wheat- summer planted sugarcane(Sole cropping)FIRB planted wheat-sugarcane intercropped inf urrows (simultaneous croPPing)Conventional flat planted wheat-summer plantedcane (sole cropping)

3.44(t 0.34)

3.50( t 0.21)

81 .8(r 6.e)59.5

(r7.2)

4.21(x.0.22)

4.35(t 0.31)

78.9( t7.2)64.6

(r 8.1)

6.00 60.0(+0.22) (t 7.10)

5.84 94.5(r 0.25) (t 8.11)

5.57 60.0(* 0.31) (x.7.78)

i

i

all farmer participatory field trials, b9 farmer participatory field trials,YTparlicipatory field trialsSource: Jat et al (2005)

traditional leveling was more in TPR being 1338 and 1271 m3 ha-1 respectively during yr1 and yr 2 compared to DSRwith 1271 and 333 ms ha-1. A marked improvement in water productivity of rice was recorded due to laser landleveling compared to traditional leveling irrespective of crop establishment techniques, however, in yr 1, theimprovement was much more under DSR compared to TPR but in yr 2 it was similar under both the establishmenttechniques (Table 4).

Efiorts are being made to accelerate the adoption of this technology as an entry point for the CA based RCTsfor realizing the potential benefits of RCTs at farm level. Being an initial cost intensive technology, initial progresswas very slow, but large scale demonstrations and promoting custom seruices has resulted in very fast progressduring last three years and currently nearly 925 farmers are rendering custom services on laser technology in theIndo-Gangetic Plains of India (Jat et al 2008c) mainly concentrated in the western IGP (Figure 3). The adoption oflaser leveling technology is accelerating at multiple rates and currenily nearly 0.2 M ha area has been broughlunder this technology in the IGP and saved significant energy, inigation water, fuel, and electricity in addition to theyield advantages in several crops and cropping system (Jat et al 2008c).

Table 4. Land leveling and crop establishment effects on rice grain yield, irrigation water use and productivity under farmer participatoryfield trials, Western Uttar Pradesh, India

Land leveling Cropestablishment

Grain yield(t ha-l)

lrrigation water use(m3 ha- l )

Water productivity(kg grain m-3 water)

2005s 2005$

LASET

Traditional

Mean

DSRTPRDSRTPR

5.25 ab5.41 a5 .10 b4.98 bc5 .19

4.90 a4.94 a4.18 bc4.49 b4.63

11200 d. |3718 c12471 b15056 a1 3 1 1 1

9067 d10150 ab9400 c1 1 1 7 1 a9947

0.50 a0.39 b0.41 b0.33 c0.41

0.54 a0.49 b0.45 b0.40 c0.47

TPR- Puddled transplanted rice, DSR- Direct seeded rice, s17 participatory trials, 115 participatory trialsSource: Jat et al (2008c)

m 1 m . 2 m 3 M 2 0 5 M m 7 m

Figure 3. Growth of laser leveler custom service providers in the Indo-Gangetic plains of lndia

1@

su

g m

= @Lg sf z m1 o2 n

1mo

63

Gonclusions and Future ProsPects

Development and fine tuning of cA techniques for different production systems in the regio-n in a farmer participatory

innovation devetopment mode has made significant impact ai farm level and accelerated the adoption of these cA

based RCTs. participatory research findings indicated that cA techniques has resulted in e.q.ual or higher productivity'

savings in irrigation water use, improved rarm frotitanility, reduced dwp, aut" to adapt with climate change effects'

and improved soil health for long-term sustainable larming under intensive agro-ecosystems compared to conventional

intensive tillage practices. HowJver, for realizing potentiaibenefits, the full cA involving all the key elements in systems'

perspective are to be devetoped and adopted irturr level. Tailoring efficient genotypes for cA and tillage x genotype

interaction studies in cropping systems perspective needs special attention in future. Long-term effects of cA on crop'

soil, biodiversity and climate in various production systems and agro-ecologies should be the future agenda of research

under natural resource management program. Animal component is the basis for farming and in CA, retention of crop

residues is must, therefore, studies on conservation agriculture based farming systems should be initiated for long-

term sustainability of the technology'

References

M.L. Jat et al. - Innovations through Conservation Agriculture

Gupta RK and Sayre K. ZOOT . Conservation Agriculture in South Asia. Journal of Agiculturat Sciences, Cambridge, 145:. 207-214'

Gupta RK and Seth A.2OO7.A review of resource conserving technologies for sustainable management of the rice-wheat cropping

systems pf the Indo-Gangetic plains. Crop Protection,26: 436-447C"pt" Hi,-H"{":'pR, Jiaguol, and Ladha, JK. 2003. Sustainability of post-Green revolution agriculture. (in): Ladha JK et al'

' lmprovin[ the produciivity and sustainability of rice-wheat systems: lssues and impacts. ASA Spec. Publ. 65' ASA' CSSA' and

SSSA, lvfadison, Wl, P.1-25.Gupta RK, Ho$Os, pR, Jiaguo J and Ladha, JK. 2003. Sustainability of post-Green revolution agriculture. (in): Ladha JK et al'

the produciivity and sustainability of rice-wheat syslems: lssues and impacts. ASA Spec. Publ. 65. ASA' CSSA' and

SSSA, Wl, p.1-25.Hobbs PR and RK. 2OOO. Sustainable resource management in intensively cultivated irrigated Rice-wheat cropping systems

ofthe plains of south Asia: Strategies and options. (in): Proceedings ol the International Conlerence on Managing

Natural for Sustainable Production in 21"tCentury, 14-18 February 2000 New Delhi (lndia). p. 584-592.

Jat ML, R Sharma SK, Gill MA, and Gupta RK. 2006. Laser land leveling-A precursor technology for resource conservation,Consortium Technical Bulletin Series 7, New Delhi, lndia: Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains'

pp 48.Jat ML, Gupta RK, Sharma SK, Gill MS, Dass Sain and Singh RP. 2008a. Evaluating conservation tillage systems under maize-

wheat rqltation in Indo-Gangetic plains of India. (in): Proceedings of the 'lOth Asian Regional Maize Workshop, 20 - 23 October2008, Mbkassar, Indonesia, p.7.

Jat ML, Gathald M K, Singh KK, Ladha JK, Singh Samar, Gupta RK, Sharma SK, Saharawat, YS and Tetanrral JP. 2008b. Experiences

with perfnanent beds in the rice-wheat system of the Western lndo-Gangetic plain. (in): Humphreys E, Roth CH editors.Perman$nt beds and rice-residue management for rice- wheat system of the Indo-Gangetic plain. ACIAR Proceedings, 127:

98-107Jat ML, Gupta Ramasundaram P, Gathala MK, Sidhu HS, Singh Samar, Singh RG, Saharawat YS, Kumar V, Chandna P and

Ladha 20OBc. Laser assisted precision land leveling: a potential technology for resource conservation in inigated intensivesystems of Indo-Ganges. (in): Proceedings of ADB project, International Rice Research Institute, Las Banos,(Under Publication\.

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