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Rice followed by wheat is the dominant cropping system in the middle Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP). Lower productivity (4.8 t ha−1) of this cropping system in Bihar, compared to the national average (6.8 t ha−1) due to several climate- and production-related issues, is a matter of concern for the farmers and the policymakers. Keeping all these in view, an experiment with rice–wheat cropping system was carried out during 2020–21 and 2021–22 in 17 adopted villages of 13 districts of Bihar under the Project “Climate Resilient Agriculture Program (CRAP)” to evaluate the feasibility of early transplanting of rice in the month of June with the aim of achieving higher system productivity by early harvesting of rice and subsequent timely sowing of wheat before 15 November with the provision of assured irrigation. In this study, the concept of an innovative community irrigation approach and single-phase 3-hp submersible pump was employed. Long-duration rice variety (150 days) Rajendra Mahsuri-1 was sown during 20–25 May in the nursery and transplanted through puddling operation during 15–20 June in 17 locations. Under delayed conditions, the nursery sowing and transplanting window were 10–15 June and 10–15 July, respectively. Timely sown rice grown with the provision of a community irrigation system achieved a grain yield of 5.2 t ha−1 and 85.8% higher water productivity, compared to late-sown crops. Following the harvest of rice, the HD-2967 variety of wheat was planted in the first fortnight of November and harvested in the first week of April, yielding 4.9 t ha−1 with the application of 2–3 irrigations based on soil type and evaporative demand. Timely harvesting of wheat facilitated farmers of the region to take an additional crop of summer green gram. With an assured irrigation system and shifting planting dates and thereby managing climatic risks, the overall productivity of the rice–wheat cropping system was achieved to the tune of 10.1 t ha−1 with a cropping intensity of 300% for better adaptation and sustainable production.

Soil moisture and air temperature stress are the two major abiotic factors limiting lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) growth and productivity in the humid tropics. Field experiments were conducted during winter seasons (November to March) of 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 on clay loam soil (AericHaplaquept) of Eastern India to cultivate rainfed lentil, with residual moisture. The objective was to study the effect of different time of sowing and foliar spray of micronutrients in ameliorating the effect of heat and moisture stress lentil crop experience in its reproductive stage. The study was conducted with two different dates of sowing, November and December, as main plot treatment and micronutrients foliar spray of boron, iron, and zinc either alone or in combination as subplot treatment. No foliar spray treatment was considered as a control. The soil moisture content is depleted from 38 to 18% (sowing to harvest) during November sowing; however, in December sowing, the depletion is from 30 to 15%. The foliar spray of micronutrients helped to have a better canopy cover and thus reduced soil evaporation during the later stages of crop growth when the temperature was beyond the threshold temperature of the crop. Crop growth rate (CGR) and biomass were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) for November sown crop and with foliar spray of boron and iron (FSB + FE) micronutrients. In the later stages of the crop when the soil moisture started depleting with no precipitation, the canopy temperature increased compared with air temperature, leading to positive values of Stress Degree Days (SDD) index. Delay in sowing reduced the duration by 11.4 days (113.5 vs. 102.1 days), resulting in varied accumulated Growing Degree Days (GDD). FSB + FE resulted in the highest yield in both years (1,436 and 1,439 kg ha−1). The results of the study concluded that the optimum time of sowing and foliar spray of micronutrients may be helpful to alleviate the soil moisture and heat stress for the sustainability of lentil production in the subtropical region.

Drought and heat stress are two major abiotic stresses that challenge the sustainability of agriculture to a larger extend. The changing and unpredictable climate further aggravates the efforts made by researchers as well as farmers. The stresses during the terminal stage of cool-season food legumes may affect numerous physiological and biochemical reactions that may result in poor yield. The plants possess a good number of adaptative and avoiding mechanisms to sustain the adverse situation. The various agronomic and breeding approaches may help in stress-induced alteration. The physiological and biochemical response of crops to any adverse situation is very important to understand to develop mechanisms and approaches for tolerance in plants. Agronomic approaches like altering the planting time, seed priming, foliar application of various macro and micro nutrients, and the application of rhizobacteria may help in mitigating the adverse effect of heat and drought stress to some extent. Breeding approaches like trait-based selection, inheritance studies of marker-based selection, genetic approaches using the transcriptome and metabolome may further pave the way to select and develop crops with better heat and drought stress adaptation and mitigation.