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The sustainability of global agriculture at higher productivity level is a concern owing to climate change, serious environmental footprints, dipping factor productivity and shrinking availability of natural resources, especially. The situation is worsening in the 'Food Bowl of India'—Indo‐Gangetic plains (IGP) by several amalgamated factors, such as declining groundwater, unpredictable precipitation owing to climate change and cultivation of heavy water duty crops. To neutralise these issues, a field experiment was executed for the period 2019–2021 to assess the efficacy of indigenous hydrogels (P‐hydrogel and Superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118) and their application methods viz., seed treatment, slurry application and soil application on crop yield and water productivity, soil moisture dynamics and profitability in a soybean–wheat cropping system under irrigation and rainfed conditions. In both study years (2019–2020 and 2020–2021), due to higher seed germination percentage, irrigation application together with seed treatment and slurry application of superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118 improved system productivity by 8.1%–26.7% and system water productivity by 17.6%–33.8% over control. Wheat grain yield was enhanced by 8.0% (2019–2020) to 32.2% (2020–2021) due to superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118 hydrogel with 10 cm lesser use of irrigation water compared with control (no‐hydrogel). Soil moisture content in 0–15 cm soil layer was also found higher by 1.8%–2.4% in superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118 and P‐hydrogel slurry‐applied plots. Therefore, higher gross profitability (31.8%), net profitability (89.8%) and B:C (26.9%) in wheat could be attributed to increased crop yields when seeds were treated with superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118. Therefore, the utilisation of modified hydrogel application, in the form of seed treatment (seed coating) and slurry application has demonstrated improvement in seed germination, crop yield and water productivity and made soybean–wheat cultivation more economical. This approach presents a feasible solution to achieving a viable production system of soybean and wheat crops by reducing irrigation amounts in the IGP of India, as well as other comparable ecological places worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photosynthesis, crop health and dry matter partitioning are among the most important factors influencing crop productivity and quality. Identifying variation in these parameters may help discover the plausible causes for crop productivity differences under various management practices and cropping systems. Thus, a 2-year (2019-2020) study was undertaken to investigate how far the integrated crop management (ICM) modules and cropping systems affect maize physiology, photosynthetic characteristics, crop vigour and productivity in a holistic manner. The treatments included nine main-plot ICM treatments [ICM1 to ICM4 - conventional tillage (CT)-based; ICM5 to ICM8 - conservation agriculture (CA)-based; ICM9 - organic agriculture (OA)-based] and two cropping systems, viz., maize-wheat and maize + blackgram-wheat in subplots. The CA-based ICM module, ICM7 resulted in significant (p < 0.05) improvements in the physiological parameters, viz., photosynthetic rate (42.56 μ mol CO2 m-2 sec-1), transpiration rate (9.88 m mol H2O m-2 sec-1) and net assimilation rate (NAR) (2.81 mg cm-2 day-1), crop vigour [NDVI (0.78), chlorophyll content (53.0)], dry matter partitioning toward grain and finally increased maize crop productivity (6.66 t ha-1) by 13.4-14.2 and 27.3-28.0% over CT- and OA-based modules. For maize equivalent grain yield (MEGY), the ICM modules followed the trend as ICM7 > ICM8 > ICM5 > ICM6 > ICM3 > ICM4 > ICM1 > ICM2 > ICM9. Multivariate and PCA analyses also revealed a positive correlation between physiological parameters, barring NAR and both grain and stover yields. Our study proposes an explanation for improved productivity of blackgram-intercropped maize under CA-based ICM management through significant improvements in physiological and photosynthetic characteristics and crop vigour. Overall, the CA-based ICM module ICM7 coupled with the maize + blackgram intercropping system could be suggested for wider adoption to enhance the maize production in semiarid regions of India and similar agroecologies across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventionally tilled maize-wheat cropping system (MWCS) is an emerging cereal production system in semi-arid region of south-Asia. This system involves excessive tillage operations that result in numerous resource- and production-vulnerabilities besides impeding environmental-stresses. Likewise, phosphorus is a vital nutrient that limits crop growth and development. It's a matter of great concern when ~80% of Indian soils are low to medium in available-P due to its sparing solubility, resulting in crop stress and low yields. Hence, crop productivity, photosynthetic parameters and resilience to nutritional and environmental stresses were assessed in a MWCS using four crop-establishment and tillage management (CETM) practices [FBCT-FBCT (Flat bed-conventional tillage both in maize and wheat); RBCT-RBZT (Raised bed-CT in maize and raised bed-zero tillage in wheat); FBZT-FBZT (FBZT both in maize and wheat); PRBZT-PRBZT (Permanent raised bed-ZT both in maize and wheat)], and five P-fertilization practices [P100 (100% soil applied-P); P50+2FSP (50% soil applied-P + 2 foliar-sprays of P through 2% DAP both in maize and wheat); P50+PSB+AM-fungi; P50+PSB+AMF+2FSP; and P0 (100% NK with no-P)] in split-plot design replicated-thrice. The results indicated that double zero-tilled PRBZT-PRBZT system significantly enhanced the grain yield (6.1; 5.4 t ha-1), net photosynthetic rate (Pn) (41.68; 23.33 μ mol CO2 m-2 s-1), stomatal conductance (SC) (0.44; 0.26 mol H2O m-2 s-1), relative water content (RWC) (83.3; 77.8%), and radiation-use efficiency (RUE) (2.9; 2.36 g MJ-1) by 12.8-15.8 and 8.5-44.4% in maize and wheat crops, respectively over conventional tilled FBCT-FBCT. P50+PSB+AMF+2FSP conjugating soil applied-P, microbial-inoculants and foliar-P, had significantly higher Pn, SC, RUE and RWC over P100 besides saving ~34.7% fertilizer-P under MWCS. P50+PSB+AMF+2FSP practice also had higher NDVI, PAR, transpiration efficiency and PHI over P100. Whereas lower stomatal limitation index (Ls) was observed under PRBZT-PRBZT system as compared to the conventional FBCT-FBCT system indicating that P is the limiting factor but not stomata. Hence, optimum P supply through foliar P-fertilization along with other sources resulted in higher grain yield by 21.4% over control. Overall, double zero-tilled PRBZT-PRBZT with crop residue retention at 6 t/ha per year, as well as P50+PSB+AMF+2FSP in MWCS, may prove beneficial in enhancing the crop productivity and, thereby, bolstering food security in semi-arid south-Asia region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imbalanced and indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers has been adversely influencing the quality of soil, environment, biodiversity and nutrient status in soil. Conjoint application of bio-inoculants (BI) with organic or inorganic sources of nutrients tweaks nutrient synchrony in soil and improves plant nutrition. With this backdrop an experiment was conducted at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during 2016–2018. The objectives were to identify the suitable combinations of BI-mediated nutrient sources for higher productivity and profitability in pigeon pea–wheat cropping system (PWCS). The nine pigeon pea treatments; four sole applications viz., recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF), vermicompost (VC), farm yard manure (FYM), leaf compost (LC) and four conjoint applications viz., RDF + BI, VC + BI, FYM + BI and LC + BI and one control were replicated thrice under randomized block design (RBD). However, in succeeding wheat, each of the treatments applied to pigeon pea was further allocated to two levels (50% and 100%) in factorial RBD. Findings exhibit that FYM + BI could result into higher equivalent-system grain productivity (10.4 and 10.8 t ha−1 during 1st and 2nd year, respectively) of PWCS. However, profitability parameters of PWCS were higher with the RDF + BI. Uptake of nutrients (NPK) was significantly higher with FYM + BI in pigeon pea and RDF + BI in wheat. Nutrient harvest index (NHI) did not vary significantly in both the crops. Conclusively, bio-inoculation is more productive and beneficial in general, while, over the various combinations, recommendation of FYM + BI combination could be more productive and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), inorganic phosphorus (P), and irrigation regimes was studied in an okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)–pea (Pisum sativum) cropping system in an acidic Alfisol. Experimentation was carried out at Palampur, India, in a randomized bock design (RBD), replicated three times with fourteen treatments comprising AM fungi (Glomus mosseae), inorganic phosphorus (50, 75, and 100% soil-test-based recommended P dose), irrigation regimes (at 40 and 80% available water capacity), generalized recommended NPK and irrigations (GRD), and farmers’ practice. Effects of AM fungi on plant height, leaf area index (LAI), and dry-matter accumulation (DMA) were nominal at early crop growth stage, i.e., 50 DAS (days after sowing). However, at 100 DAS, AMF imbedded treatments led to higher plant height (4%), LAI (3%), and DMA (6%) in okra, whereas in pea the magnitude of increase in these parameters following AMF inoculation was 6, 5, and 8%, respectively, over non-AMF counterparts. AMF + 75% soil-test-based P dose at either of these irrigation regimes gave statistically similar yields in both okra and pea as that obtained under 100% soil-test-based P dose at either of two irrigation regimes, thus indicating an economy of about 25% in soil-test-based P dose. Regarding nutrient harvest index in okra and pea, statistically similar values were registered with most nutrients under both AMF inoculated and non-AMF counterparts. In the case of okra, P harvest index was registered less by 3% with AMF inoculation; however, its magnitude increased by 3% in pea following AMF inoculation compared to non-AMF counterparts at similar levels of P and irrigation. At completion of two cycles of okra-pea system, AMF imbedded treatments did not alter available soil nutrient status significantly in comparison to non-AMF counterparts. Overall, current study suggests that practice of AMF inoculation has great potential in enhancing growth parameters for better productivity, fertilizer-P economy, and nutrient harvest efficiency in okra-pea production system in Himalayan acidic Alfisol. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]