Abstract
Scarcity of fresh water and climate change are the two main threats for wheat production in South Asia. Tweaking wheat planting period could be an effective cost-smart strategy to mitigate these stresses. To evaluate the performance of three leading wheat varieties under different planting periods in pragmatic on-farm environments, trials were carried out during 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. Further, to have greater insights on long-term temporal scale, 22 years (2000 to 2021) of crop simulation data were analyzed to identify the optimum planting period of wheat for higher yield and water productivity using the APSIM cropping systems simulation model. The result showed that first fortnight of November (PD1)-sown crop resulted in higher grain yield and more irrigation water use efficiency. Wheat sown during PD1 and in the second fortnight of November (PD2) had 20–25% lower blue water requirement than the second fortnight of December (PD4) crop in the long run. To produce one tonne of wheat grain required an additional 20, 60 and 83 m3 irrigation water when the crop was sown at PD1, PD2, PD3 (first fortnight of December) and PD4, respectively. It was observed that PD4 reduced wheat yields by 20–22% compared to sowing on PD1 and PD2 and every 15 days’ delay in wheat planting after 15 November reduced the length of the crop growing season by 4–5 days. Hence, the early wheat planting is proven superior in harnessing maximum yield with minimum burden on blue water resources.
Highlights
Water scarcity is an alarming issue in South Asia as many of geographical areas of the region are facing bad water crises
Yield penalty is quite obvious in late-sown wheat due to its exposure to less favourable climatic factors, especially maximum and minimum temperatures that play a crucial role in determining the production and productivity of the crop [7,8]
As is evident from the calibration followed by validation with two years’ field trial, it can be concluded that the Agricultural production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model performs well for wheat crop in north Indian conditions
Summary
Water scarcity is an alarming issue in South Asia as many of geographical areas of the region are facing bad water crises. Wheat planting generally is delayed when rice, cotton, sugarcane, pigeon pea, potato and toria are grown before wheat This late-sown crop faces low temperature at early establishment and higher temperature at the reproductive phase and needs a comparatively higher number of irrigations [4]. The Agricultural production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model was developed to imitate crop production under diverse management and climatic conditions, including planting time and water use [18]. The study was designed to evaluate the major wheat varieties under different planting periods with regard to their yield performance, profitability and irrigation water use efficiency and to see the sowing window adjustment effects on long-term seasonal dynamics on crop phenology, yield, water productivity and water footprints of wheat. The present experiment was carried out to test the hypothesis that the APSIM model is able to simulate the effects of different planting dates and to test that planting time will affect crop yield and water productivity
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