Abstract
Over last few decades, acreage of total fallow lands (Kharif and Rabi seasons) in India has remained almost unchanged around 25Mha. The acreage of Kharif (summer) and Rabi (winter) Fallows in Madhya Pradesh (MP) are 1.98Mha and 5.51Mha, respectively. In the semi-arid agroclimatic zones of the states, Fallow-Wheat/Gram/Indian-Mustard cropping systems are practiced. After harvest of Kharif rice, kodo-kutki, maize or sorghum, farmers generally practice post-rainy season Rabi fallows in the sub-humid regions, south of Narmada River. Kharif fallowing is largely the result of the inability of the farmers to make planting dates independent of monsoon forecasts, and make efficient use of rain water. It appears that factors responsible for Kharif and Rabi fallows are distinctly different and a general consequence of distinctly different soil moisture regimes prevailing in the two crop seasons. Kharif and Rabi fallows have two distinct resource management domains. Whereas, Kharif fallows can be tackled with “PMP-dry seeding” agronomy, production constraints of Rabi fallows can be substantively tackled by shifting from tilled to zero-till agriculture with residue management to make efficient use of the conserved rain water. Some irrigation support will prove useful to tackle mid-season droughts in both situations. Conservation agricultural practices can significantly improve and stabilize crop yields in black soils and other associated soils of in the semi-arid tropics region of the Central India.
Highlights
Since 1960s, India has pursued an agricultural policy aimed largely at enhancing productivity through input based approaches
The concept of homogenous resource management domains / zones/ has progressed through many stages such as agroclimatic zones and agro-ecological sub-regions which has found its way into precision farming
Crop production in fallow lands was set an early goal for research institutions located in rainfed semi-arid tropics (SAT), but the institutional deficits did not allow a fuller understanding of the problems associated with land fallowing
Summary
Since 1960s, India has pursued an agricultural policy aimed largely at enhancing productivity through input based approaches. The strategy has ignored the impact of input interventions on the soil health and the associated ecoservices, resulting in declining factor productivity and widespread problems of natural resource degradation [1] Such gains were generally limited to well-endowed regions where it was possible to alter the production environment through input use. In Central Plateau region of India (Madhya Pradesh + Chhattisgarh), total acreage of lands that remain fallow during Kharif season is about 3.5 Mha [6,7]. Using the cropping system field survey data and the assessments of the remote sensing studies on seasonal land follows, the present study was aimed to achieve a better understanding of the issues associated with seasonal land fallows and to examine if the two land fallowing systems (Kharif and Rabi) constitute distinct resource domains, calling for specific crop-soil-water management approaches for agricultural intensification in the region. The coarse textured red soils have low capacity to retain soil moisture, nutrients and soil organic matter and develop hard crusts on drying which become highly impermeable to water and pose problems
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