Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
RCTs include a wide range of practices. No-till/minimum tillage approaches lead
to a drastic reduction in tillage operations, and hence costs, thereby making it easier
for resource-poor and undercapitalized farmers to adopt them. Other technologies
include surface seeding, raised-bed planting, skip furrow irrigation in row-planted
cropping systems, or with options of complementary crop (intercropping of potato,
mung bean, cowpea, chickpea/wheat with maize, sunflower, and sugarcane, etc.),
water harvesting and supplemental irrigation, mulching and residue management,
live fences and vegetative barriers, agroforestry and horticulture, integrated nutrient
management, integrated pest management, integrated tree-crop-livestock farming
systems, and the rational use of sloping land (contour farming, upward planting in
residues, etc.). The new innovations for direct dry-seeded rice and brown matur-
ing (sowing a green manure crop with the main crop and then knocking down the
green manure crop with herbicide molecules), as well as the identification of pre- and
postemergence herbicide molecules, have opened the window for practicing CA in
irrigated rice-wheat systems. CA-based RCTs have been shown to increase produc-
tion and improve soil health, make ecosystems more resilient and reduce their vul-
nerability to climate change. RCTs help produce more at less cost (save labor, fuel/
energy, water, and other inputs, and preserve a clean environment), and provide a
platform for diversification and intensification of the production systems (Gathala et
al. 2013; Jat et al. 2013; Kumar et al. 2013).
5.6 PLANT BREEDING INTERVENTIONS TO MAKE
CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE MORE PROFITABLE
Improved cultivars along with external use of fertilizer nutrients, herbicides, and water
supplies have tripled the global food production since 1950. Genetic gains in cereal pro-
duction have been mostly due to breeding × management interactions (Slafer et al. 2005),
and are approximately around 0.5% year
−1
(Calderini et al. 1999; Abeledo et al. 2002).
The yield gains were more prominent under environments optimum for crop production.
Therefore, the benefits of increased knowledge about genetics and crop production were
restricted to a small section of farmers located in favorable environments. According to
Pimbert (2008), of 1.3 billion farmers globally, most (96%) are marginal farmers who are
unable to apply sufficient external inputs (nutrient, water, etc.) and hence have not been
able to realize the full benefits of plant breeding approaches. Increase in food produc-
tion, either through better-yielding genotypes, better agronomic management, or through
their interaction, has become a necessity as the world population is likely to cross the 9
billion mark by 2050 (Tilman et al. 2002). Increased population along with change in
dietary habits may result in doubling food demand. With limited scope for expansion in
the cropped area, intensification and enhancing crop productivity are the only inevitable
routes available. Yield gap at present in many important crops such as wheat and rice
results from agronomic failings, and future gains in productivity can come through if we
breed the varieties suited to crop management for specific circumstances. Crop produc-
tion practices that enhance productivity and income sustainably have to be identified.
Plant breeders will have to develop varieties that actually complement these systems. It is
now generally agreed that climate change has come to stay and is affecting the planting
time of food crops, including wheat, particularly in South Asia.
