Abstract
Field experiments for six seasons (2008–09 to 2013–2014) and simulations for mid–century (2021-2050) were carried out to (i) understand impact of inter– and intra– seasonal temperature variability on wheat yield, and (ii) identify best management intervention in relation to temperature variability. In the field experiments, treatments were three dates of planting, two inbred varieties and two irrigation schedules replicated thrice. Simulation with CERES–Wheat model pointed that variability of 5.5 percent in Tmax and 3.8 percent in Tmin would cause 11.2 percent variability in yield. The variation in yield would also vary with date of planting. It was relatively less in Nov 05 sown wheat than other dates,showing that in mid–century yield can be sustained by planting wheat at this date. However, at present growing of longer duration varieties in last week of October with adequate irrigation, medium to longer duration in 1st week of November is the practical adaptive measure to minimize impact of temperature variability on wheat yield.
Highlights
Wheat is the major winter crop grown on area of 3.5 million hectares out of a total cultivated area of 4.2million hectares in the Punjab state
Agricultural system models are commonly used to investigate the potential impact of climate variability on crop productivity.Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) has been extensively used for yield gap analysis, strategic and tactical decision making and climate change studies (Vashisht et al, 2013).Reports in the literature suggest that wheat yield is governed by the change in temperature during the entire growth season, but at a particular stage too (Farooq et al, 2011).To moderate temperature change/variability effects, management interventions such as planting date, crop variety and irrigation schedules have been advocated in the literature (Jalota et al, 2013)
The treatments included three dates of planting viz.October 20 (D1), November 05 (D2) and November 20 (D3); two inbred varieties viz. long duration of 160 days (V1-PBW 343/621)) and medium duration of 146 days (V2-PBW 550), and two irrigation schedules viz.five irrigations based on crop stage– crown root initiation, tillering, jointing, flowering and grain formation (I1), and three to four irrigations based on irrigation water (IW)/PAN–E ratio of 0.9 (I2)
Summary
Wheat is the major winter crop grown on area of 3.5 million hectares out of a total cultivated area of 4.2million hectares in the Punjab state. Agricultural system models are commonly used to investigate the potential impact of climate variability on crop productivity.Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) has been extensively used for yield gap analysis, strategic and tactical decision making and climate change studies (Vashisht et al., 2013).Reports in the literature suggest that wheat yield is governed by the change in temperature during the entire growth season, but at a particular stage too (Farooq et al, 2011).To moderate temperature change/variability effects, management interventions such as planting date, crop variety and irrigation schedules have been advocated in the literature (Jalota et al, 2013). The present field and simulation studies were undertaken at Ludhiana location of central Punjab to (i) understand impact of inter– and intra–seasonal temperature variabilityon wheat yield in present and future climates, (ii) identify best management intervention such as planting date, variety and irrigation schedule in relation climate variation
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