Agro-ecological Sustainability with Pulses under System of Crop Intensification: A Review

Abstract

Pulses, endowed with unique ability of nitrogen fixation constitute an important component of crop diversification and resource conservation in farming systems. System of crop intensification (SCI) is an agricultural production strategy that seeks to increase and optimize the benefits that can be derived from making better use of available resources: soil, water, seeds, nutrients, solar radiation and air. System of crop intensification practices enable the crop to grow and develop potentially which provides enhanced production in sustainable and eco-friendly manner. Therefore, classical crop cultivation practices need to overhaul by adopting system of crop intensification for more profitability and sustainability. It includes ecosystem services taking full account of the factors and interactions of time and space so that field operations are conducted in a timely way. System of crop intensification has emerged as a next generation agro-ecological innovation. System of crop intensification principles and practices build upon the productive potentials that derive from plants having larger, more efficient, longer lived root systems and from their symbiotic relationships with a more abundant, diverse and active soil biota. Adoption of system of crop intensification practices in pulses may enhance the productivity and ecological sustainability of the system and reduce the gap between per capita availability and consumption of pulses and also enhancing the resource use efficiency of the system.