Sustainability issues on rice–wheat cropping system

TLDR

Rice–wheat cropping in South Asia is becoming less profitable as labor, water, capital and energy resources dwindle, while soil degradation and water scarcity threaten its sustainability, making site‑specific conditions and the limitations of single technologies critical considerations. The authors argue that a paradigm shift toward an integrated approach is necessary to improve the profits, production and sustainability of the rice–wheat system. They review resource‑conserving technologies—including zero tillage, laser levelling, soil‑matric‑potential irrigation, bed planting, direct seeding, mechanical transplanting and crop diversification—and stress that a holistic assessment of system issues must precede implementation. The review highlights the key problems caused by intensive rice–wheat cropping that must be addressed when designing integrated conservation agriculture projects to boost production, profits and sustainability.

Abstract

Rice–wheat cropping system (RWCS) of the South Asia is labour-, water-, capital- and energy-intensive, and become less profitable as the availability of these resources diminished. This could be further aggravated with deterioration of soil structure, declining underground water and lesser land and water productivity which ultimately are threat in front of sustainable and profitable RWCS in the region. For improving the profits, production and sustainability of this sequence - a paradigm shift is required. Scientists recommended different resource-conserving technologies (RCTs) viz. zero tillage, laser levelling, irrigation based on soil matric potential, bed planting, direct seeding, mechanical transplanting of rice and crop diversification for this purpose. These technologies are site specific and before selecting any particular RCT for a particular region, soil texture and agro-climatic conditions must be considered. A solitary approach/RCT might not be effective to solve the upcoming issue of producing more food grains with inadequate available water and land. Therefore, an integrated approach is required. But before implementing any approach, different issues relating to RWCS must be discovered, considered and addressed in a holistic manner. In this review, an attempt was made to highlight different issues resulted from the practise of intensive rice–wheat cropping sequence of the region, which must be considered while framing and implementing any integrated approach/project such as conservation agriculture for improving the productions, profits and sustainability of RWCS in the region.