Achieving Sustainability in Food Systems: Addressing Changing Climate through Real Time Nitrogen and Weed Management in a Conservation Agriculture-Based Maize–Wheat System

Kapila Shekhawat, Vinod K. Singh, Sanjay Singh Rathore, Rishi Raj and T. K. Das
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Kapila Shekhawat: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi 110 012, India
Vinod K. Singh: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi 110 012, India
Sanjay Singh Rathore: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi 110 012, India
Rishi Raj: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi 110 012, India
T. K. Das: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi 110 012, India

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: The proven significance of conservation agriculture (CA) in enhancing agronomic productivity and resource use efficiency across diverse agro-ecologies is often challenged by weed interference and nitrogen (N) immobilization. The collective effect of real-time N and weed management has been scarcely studied. To evaluate the appropriateness of sensor-based N management in conjunction with a broad-spectrum weed control strategy for the maize–wheat system, an experiment was conducted at ICAR—Indian Agricultural Research Institute—in New Delhi, India, during 2015–2016 and 2016–2017. Weed management in maize through Sesbania brown manure followed by post-emergence application of 2,4-D (BM + 2,4-D) in maize and tank-mix clodinafop-propargyl (60 g ha −1 ) and carfentrazone (20 g ha −1 ) (Clodi+carfentra) in wheat resulted in minimum weed infestation in both crops. It also resulted in highest maize (5.92 and 6.08 t ha −1 ) and wheat grain yields (4.91 and 5.4 t ha −1 ) during 2015–2016 and 2016–2017, respectively. Half of the N requirement, when applied as basal and the rest as guided by Optical crop sensor, resulted in saving 56 and 59 kg N ha −1 in the maize–wheat system, respectively, over 100% N application as farmers’ fertilizer practice during the two consecutive years. Interactive effect of N and weed management on economic yield of maize and wheat was also significant and maximum yield was obtained with 50% N application as basal + rest as per Optical crop sensor and weed management through BM+2,4-D in maize and Clodi+carfentra in wheat crop. The study concludes that real-time N management, complemented with appropriate weed management, improved growth, enhanced agronomic productivity and endorsed N saving under a CA-based maize–wheat system in Trans Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Keywords: brown manure; optical crop sensor; real-time nitrogen management; weed menace; weed shift (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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