Co-Implementation of Tillage, Precision Nitrogen, and Water Management Enhances Water Productivity, Economic Returns, and Energy-Use Efficiency of Direct-Seeded Rice

Vijay Pratap, Anchal Dass (), Shiva Dhar, Subhash Babu, Vinod Kumar Singh, Raj Singh, Prameela Krishnan, Susama Sudhishri, Arti Bhatia, Sarvendra Kumar, Anil Kumar Choudhary, Renu Singh, Pramod Kumar, Susheel Kumar Sarkar, Sunil Kumar Verma, Kavita Kumari and Aye Aye San
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Vijay Pratap: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Anchal Dass: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Shiva Dhar: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Subhash Babu: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Vinod Kumar Singh: Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santoshnagar, Hyderabad, Telangana 500-059, India
Raj Singh: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Prameela Krishnan: Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Susama Sudhishri: Water Technology Centre, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Arti Bhatia: Environment Science, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Sarvendra Kumar: Division of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Anil Kumar Choudhary: Division of Crop Production, ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla 171-001, India
Renu Singh: Environment Science, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Pramod Kumar: Division of Agricultural Economics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Susheel Kumar Sarkar: Division of Design of Experiments, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Sunil Kumar Verma: Department of Agronomy, IAS, BHU, Varanasi 221-005, India
Kavita Kumari: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India
Aye Aye San: Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi 110-012, India

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-20

Abstract: The sustainability of conventional rice ( Oryza sativa L.) production systems is often questioned due to the over-mining of groundwater and environmental degradation. This has led to the development of cost-effective, resource-efficient, and environmentally clean rice production systems by optimizing water and nitrogen (N) use. Hence, a 2-year field study (2019 and 2020) was conducted at the ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, to assess the effect of precision N and water management strategies on growth, land, and water productivity, as well as energy-use efficiency in scented direct-seeded rice (DSR). Two crop establishment methods, conventional-till DSR (CT-DSR) and zero-till DSR (ZT-DSR) along with three irrigation scenarios (assured irrigation (irrigation after 72 h of the drying of surface water), irrigation at 20% depletion of available soil moisture (DASM), and 40% DASM+Si (80 kg ha −1 )) were assigned to the main plots; three N management options, a 100% recommended dose of N (RDN): 150 kg ha −1 ; Nutrient Expert® (NE®)+leaf color chart (LCC) and NE®+soil plant analysis development (SPAD) meter-based N management were allocated to sub-plots in a three-time replicated split-plot design. The CT-DSR produced 1.4, 11.8, and 89.4, and 2.4, 18.8, and 152.8% more grain yields, net returns, and net energy in 2019 and 2020, respectively, over ZT-DSR. However, ZT-DSR recorded 8.3 and 10.7% higher water productivity (WP) than CT-DSR. Assured irrigation resulted in 10.6, 16.1 16.9, and 8.1 and 12.3, 21.8 20.6, and 6.7% higher grain yields, net returns, net energy, and WP in 2019 and 2020, respectively, over irrigation at 20% DASM. Further, NE®+SPAD meter-based N management saved 27.1% N and recorded 9.6, 18.3, 16.8, and 8.3, and 8.8, 21.7, 19.9, and 10.7% greater grain yields, net returns, net energy, and WP over RDN in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Thus, the study suggested that the NE®+SPAD-based N application is beneficial over RDN for productivity, resource-use efficiency, and N-saving (~32 kg ha −1 ) both in CA-based and conventionally cultivated DSR. This study also suggests irrigating DSR after 72 h of the drying of surface water; however, under obviously limited water supplies, irrigation can be delayed until 20% DASM, thus saving two irrigations, which can be diverted to additional DSR areas.

Keywords: conservation agriculture; direct-seeded rice; irrigation scenarios; leaf color chart; SPAD meter; water productivity; precision nitrogen management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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