MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR ENHANCING FERTILIZER USE EFFICIENCY UNDER RICE-WHEAT CROPPING SYSTEM IN THE INDO-GANGETIC PLAINS

Rice and wheat are the staple foods for almost the entire Asian population and therefore they occupy a premium position among all food commodities. The era of the Green Revolution started during the early 1970s with wheat and rice and since then the rice-wheat cropping system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains has played a significant role in the food security of the region. However, recent years have witnessed a significant slowdown in the yield growth rate of this system and the sustainability of this important cropping system is at risk due to second-generation technology problems and mounting pressure on natural resources. Traditional cultivars and conventional agronomic practices are no longer able to even maintain the gains in productivity achieved during the past few decades. Demand for food is increasing with the increasing population and purchasing power of consumers. The rice-wheat cropping system is labour-water-and energy-intensive and it becomes less profitable as these resources become increasingly scarce and the problem is aggravated with deterioration of soil health, the emergence of new weeds, and emerging challenges of climate change. Therefore, a paradigm shift is required for enhancing the system's productivity and sustainability. The 4R Principles of applying right source of nutrients, at the right rate, at the right time and at the right place is expected to increase nutrient use efficiency, productivity and farm profit in rice-wheat cropping system production and provides opportunity for better environmental stewardship of nutrients. Keywords: Best Management Practices, Cropping system, Indo-Gangetic Plains, Sustainability

System of wheat intensification (SWI) – A new approach for increasing wheat yield in small holder farming system

Given the confluence of water scarcity, declining area under wheat and continuing increase in population, raising wheat productivity has become a serious concern to the wheat scientists. Yield contribution from irrigation is more significant in wheat. Increase in the irrigation management levels for wheat is probably more relevant and easier to improve water productivity. But transplanted wheat seems high water requiring and economically less feasible. Seedlings have usually poor survival rate, and are often more fragile than rice seedlings at the two leaves stage. Besides plants do not grow quickly and vigorously, and show a delay in development compared to the direct seeding treatment. All yield parameters are often lower compared to the direct seeding treatment due to transplanting of aged seedlings, greater shock of transplantation, high plant density, improper amount and timing of water deliveries. Therefore, applying SRI (system of rice intensification) practices is expected to have a positive impact on the wheat plants, similar to the impact on rice. SWI is a new concept and goes with the SRI principle. It can reduce weeding time to one-third and to one-half of the time needed for current weeding practice. Herbicide use is effective with SWI, but farmers are inventing or modifying tools that reduce the labour time required for weeding. Thus, SWI is a methodology aimed at increasing the yield of wheat, where all agronomic principles are put into practices to provide high wheat yield per drop of water and per kg of agricultural inputs like fertilizer, seed etc

SUPER-FRUIT: AS A POTENTIAL OPTION TO MITIGATE MALNUTRITION IN INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

Health and wellness are key drivers of new product development, globally. Obesity and excess calories are issues on one extreme and lack of nutrients is an issue at the other extreme. Consumers are also seeking out new kinds of indulgence, driving demand for new ethnic and exotic flavours and authentic regional products. The health benefits of super-fruits have made them successful as ingredients for food companies and as a source of exciting new flavours for consumers. The super-fruits deemed super by nutrition scientists are packed with antioxidants, fibre, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that improve health condition. The importance of super-fruits as a necessary part of the human diet and as cash crops is well recognized. They help to prevent a number of extremely chronic human diseases. In recent years this term - originally used by the food industry to indicate fruit having an exceptional nutrient richness and nutritional qualities, including high concentration of phytochemicals - has been increasingly and generically utilized, mainly for marketing purposes. In, India traditional fruits like bael, aonla, pomegranate, guava, pineapple, coconut, grapefruit, litchi, jackfruit, papaya, grape and so many indigenous minor fruits are rich in above mentioned phyto-chemicals & anti- oxidant compound that include them in the list of super fruit. In this present paper we critically review the extraordinary-therapeutic characteristics of Super-fruit, mainly to aware the common people and to speed-up the super-fruit cultivation. Keywords: Super-fruits, Phyto-chemicals, Antioxidant, Malnutrition, Human healt

Evaluation of rapeseed-mustard cultivars under late sown condition in coastal ecosystem of West Bengal

In our present report, we evaluated seven rapeseed mustard cultivars at coastal saline zone of West Bengal, India under rice-mustard sequence in a triplicated randomized block design for 14 traits to study their performance under late sown (2nd December) condition. The cultivars were sown at 30 cm × 10 cm spacing during winter of 2013?14 and 2014?15. The soil was clay in texture and had the following key properties for the 0?30 cm layer: pH 5.84, electrical conductivity (EC) 1.55 dS/m, available nitrogen (N) 155.24 kg/ha, available phosphorus (P) 105.76 kg/ha, available potassium (K) 365.86 kg/ha and available B 2.63 kg/ha. Among the seven cultivars, Kranti produced significantly (p?0.05) higher seed yield (1.33 t/ha) closely followed by the hybrids PAC-409 (1.23 t/ha) and Pusa Bold (1.21 t/ha). Seed yield showed significant (p?0.05) positive correlation with all the independent variables (plant height, R2=0.88; dry matter, R2=0.42; days to 50 % flowering, R2=0.27; number of siliqua/plant, R2=0.38; seeds/siliqua, R2=0.48; except number of fertile plants/m2, R2=-0.06; number of secondary branches/plant, R2=-0.97 and length of siliqua, R2=-0.07). However, number of secondary branches/plant had significant (p?0.05) and negative correlation with seed yield of mustard (R2=-0.97). Plant height revealed the highest degree of correlation (R2=0.88) with seed yield followed by siliqua per main branch (R2=0.77), days to harvest (R2=0.75) and 1000-seed weight (R2=0.52). The results indicated that selection of suitable rapeseed mustard cultivars based on these traits would be more effective in improving seed yield in mustard

Response of growth regulators and micronutrients on yield and physico-chemical quality of Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk) cv. BAU Kul-1

Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) is an indigenous delicious, nourishing fruit grown widely throughout the India but faces heavy fruit drop due to several biotic and abiotic stress factors resulted in declining trend of ber pro-duction over the year. Keeping these facts in foreground, replicated field experiment was conducted during 2013-14 and 2014-15 at HRS, Mondouri, BCKV, West Bengal with eleven treatments consist two different levels of NAA, GA3, 2,4-D, ZnSO4 and H3BO3 along with a control (water spray). Results of investigation revealed that application of 2,4-D @ 10 mg/l recorded highest fruit set (48.80%). Maximum fruit retention (42.83%) and total no. of fruits/tree (514) were obtained with the application of NAA @ 20 mg/l. Application of GA3 @ 20 mg/l recorded significantly (p?0.05) higher yield (30.67 kg/tree), fruit weight (60.5 g), fruit length (5.8 cm), fruit breadth (5.1 cm), pulp to seed ratio (13.9) and specific gravity (1.104) as well as economic returns over control during both the year of experiment. Among the treatments H3BO3 at 0.4% recorded the highest TSS (11.7°Brix), total sugar (8.33%), reducing sugar (5.21%) and TSS: Acid (107.36) ratio with lowest fruit acidity (0.10 %) whereas highest vitamin-C content of fruit was recorded with GA3 at 20 mg/l (64.68 mg / 100 g) followed by NAA at 20 mg/l. Results suggest that twice spraying of GA3 @ 20 mg/l and H3BO3 at 0.4% is vital for optimizing yield components, yield and quality of ber (cv. BAU Kul-1) in trans-Gangetic plains of West Bengal

Agronomic fortification of zinc in potato production in Indian context: A review

Micronutrient has received greater attention in crop production because the widespread deficiency of micronutrient is coming forward gradually. The key reasons for such deficiency are an intensification of cropping system, adoption of high yielding cultivars of crops and modern irrigation facilities. The greater use of high analysis chemical fertilizers instead of organic sources of plant nutrients (farmyard manure, composts etc.) is also another contributing factor to this problem. This modern technology of crop production causes a serious depletion of different micronutrients reserve in soil resulting in their severe deficiency in many countries. Potato is the widely cultivated vegetable crops throughout India. In potato cultivation, the application of some micro-nutrients (zinc/Zn, boron/B etc.) causes significant increase in foliage at the initial stage of crop growth, while the translocation of assimilates become higher in later stages, ultimately leads to higher yield. Zinc plays a very important role in increasing the production as well as the quality of potato tubers. Zinc loading in potato through foliar as well as soil-applied Zn increases Zn concentration in potato tuber up to 3-4 times which is quite higher than most of the commonly known crops. Zn fertilization has been found to increase ascorbic acid content, but it reduces the tyrosine and total phenol content in tubers, and thereby improves the processing quality. Finally, Zn-fortified potato can be a potential option for mitigating wide spread Zn-driven malnutrition in the Asian countries

Zinc Fertilization in Potato: A Physiological and Bio-chemical Study

Aims: More than 54% of soils in West Bengal are Zinc (Zn) deficient and therefore, Zn−fertilization is assumed to play a key role not only for increasing potato yield but also for combating wide spread deficiency of micronutrients (mainly Zn) in many potato growing areas of the state. Place and Duration of Study: A two-year field experiment was conducted during winter 2013-14 and 2014-15 at to assess the advantages of Zn nutrition in potato cv. Kufri Jyoti under alluvial soil (Entisols) of West Bengal, India Methodology: The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) having five treatments and four replications The potato was fertilized with five zinc levels (0, 1.5, 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 kg Zn ha−1) through zinc sulphate heptahydrate i.e. ZnSO4, 7H2O (commercial grade Multi-Zn contained 21% Zn) at the time of planting. A uniform dose of NPK at 200:150:150 kg ha−1 RDF was applied in all the plots in the form of urea (46% N), single super phosphate (16% P2O5), and muriate of potash (60% K2O). Results: Application Zn fertilizer at 4.5 kg ha−1 recorded significantly higher germination %, plant height, leaf area index (LAI), dry matter accumulation (DMA) and number of tubers hill−1. Total number and yield of tuber ha−1 were also changed significantly (P≤ .05) with the levels of Zn-fertilization. Quality parameters like total soluble solids (TSS), total acidity, ascorbic acid, starch and amount of total sugar contents of fresh potato tuber as well as organoleptic quality of chips (colour) also influenced significantly (P≤ .05) with varied levels of Zn fertilization. Conclusion: Results suggest that application of 4.5 kg Zn ha−1 in combination with recommended dose fertilizer (RDF) of NPK (i.e. 200:150:150 kg ha−1) is vital for optimizing yield components, yield and quality of potato (cv. Kufri Jyoti) in trans-Gangetic plains of West Bengal, India

Management of Crop Residues for Improving Input Use Efficiency and Agricultural Sustainability

Crop residues, the byproduct of crop production, are valuable natural resources that can be managed to maximize different input use efficiencies. Crop residue management is a well-known and widely accepted practice, and is a key component of conservation agriculture. The rapid shift from conventional agriculture to input-intensive modern agricultural practices often leads to an increase in the production of crop residues. Growing more food for an ever-increasing population brings the chance of fast residue generation. Ecosystem services from crop residues improve soil health status and supplement necessary elements in plants. However, this is just one side of the shield. Indecorous crop residue management, including in-situ residue burning, often causes serious environmental hazards. This happens to be one of the most serious environmental hazard issues witnessed by the agricultural sector. Moreover, improper management of these residues often restrains them from imparting their beneficial effects. In this paper, we have reviewed all recent findings to understand and summarize the different aspects of crop residue management, like the impact of the residues on crop and soil health, natural resource recycling, and strategies related to residue retention in farming systems, which are linked to the environment and ecology. This comprehensive review paper may be helpful for different stakeholders to formulate suitable residue management techniques that will fit well under existing farming system practices without compromising the systems’ productivity and environmental sustainability