Conservation tillage and planting practices in rice (Oryza sativa)wheat (Triticum aestivum) cropping system for sustainable agriculture

A field experiment was conducted during the 6 consecutive rice (Oryza sativa L.)wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) emend. Fiori & Paol] crop cycles, starting from rainy (kharif) season 2004 to winter (rabi) season 200910 at the Research Farm, All India Coordinated Research Project on Integrated Farming System (ICAR), SKUASTJammu, Jammu and Kashmir, in a clay loam soil, with pH 8.1, soil organic carbon 0.55% and available N, P and K of 247.7, 22.0 and 103.3 kg/ha, respectively, to evaluate four rice (Oryza sativa)-establishment methods, viz. direct dry seeding, direct seeding of sprouted rice by drum seeder, manual transplanting and transplanting by hand transplanter and 4 wheat establishment methods in succeeding wheat crop, viz. bed planting by bed planter, conventional sowing by seed drill , strip till drilling by strip till drill and zero-till drilling by zero till drill for sustainability, productivity, profitability and energetics of ricewheat system under sub-tropical irrigated condi- tions. The experiment was laidout in stripplot design with 3 replications. Keeping 4 rice and 4 wheat establishment methods in the strip resulted significantly higher overall yield attributes and average grain yield of rice (4.80 t/ha) under manual transplanting, whereas lower yield of 3.81 t/ha was obtained under direct dry seeding rice. Suc- ceeding wheat crop sown with bed planter showed significantly higher number of tillers, grain/panicles and grain yield of 3.72 t/ha over other methods but at par with conventionally sown (3.63 t/ha). System productivity (8.44 t/ ha) and sustainable yield index (0.75) of rice under conventional practices and wheat (0.79) under conventional sowing were the highest. Net return and benefit: cost ratio of the system was higher in the manual transplanting of rice ( 47.85 103/ha and 1.81) and bed planting of wheat ( 46.40 103/ha and 1.73). Manual transplanting re- duced weed biomass by 26.7, 36.4 and 56.6% over hand transplanter drum seeding, and direct sowing of rice re- spectively. Among wheat establishment methods lower weed biomass (6.90 g/m2) was noticed under bed planting which was at par with conventional sowing of wheat (7.09 g/m2). Organic carbon content was slightly (up to 5%) build up in all the tillage and planting methods over initial level, but available N,P,K varied considerably from the initial status. Soil-bulk density was improved under manual transplanting (1.19 g/cm3) of rice and bed planting of wheat treatment (1.19 g/cm3). In fuel consumption, 18.6% and 44.1% savings were achieved with direct seeding in rice and zero till drilling in wheat establishment methods over conventional methods. In term of system energy-use efficiency and energy productivity was higher under manual transplanting of rice (10.79% and 0.19 kg/MJ) and bed planting for wheat (10.81% and 0.18 kg/MJ), whereas higher water productivity was noticed in paddy estab- lished through manual transplanting method (0.49 kg grain/m3) and wheat established through strip till drill (0.45 kg grain/m3).