Decline In Factor Productivity Research Articles

Enhancing Nutrient Use Efficiency and Productivity of Cereals through Site Specific Nutrient Management

The Green revolution era has been the golden period for boosting food production specifically in South-Asia, but the signs of fatigue in the late 1980s with a sharp decline in factor productivity, stagnation in crop yields with dwindling and marginal farm incomes pose a serious threat to food security, agricultural sustainability, soil and environmental health. In a nutshell, growing concerns related to the decline in soil health, productivity and nutrient-use efficiency (NUE) are compelling farmers to use higher amounts of chemical fertilizers during the last two decades. The low NUE and associated environmental pollution as well as global warming problems have increased serious apprehension about the existing nutrient management practices. As such, it is high time to develop site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) technologies that are able to balance crop and soil nutrient dynamics. The SSNM is need-based feeding of crops with nutrients while acknowledging the inherent spatial variability, which enhances crop productivity, profitability, NUE and avoids nutrient loss. For efficient and effective SSNM, the use of soil and plant nutrient status sensing devices, decision support systems, simulation models, and machines for varying applications of nutrients plays a major role. This paper deals with the SSNM technologies and tools that have the potential to enhance NUE, crop productivity, profitability as well as sustainability.

Conservation Agriculture in Maize-based Cropping System of Nepal: A Review

Maize-based cropping system followed by intensive tillage and faulty practices often associated with many negative implications such as the decline of soil organic matter, increase soil erosion by wind/water, lower nutrient-use efficiency, field burning of crop residue, air pollution mainly attributed to the monoculture of intensive conventional production systems leading to global warming and decline in factor productivity. Conservation Agriculture (CA) underlying principles of minimal soil disturbance, soil cover and crop rotation are increasingly recognized as an essential for the sustainability of this cropping system. Therefore, a brief review was done to find out the results its constraints and the possible interventions under a maize-based system of Nepal. Very few works under CA is done so far under maize-based cropping system of Nepal, however, the results are encouraging. There are some constraints in CA technologies promotion, such as scale-neutral agri-machineries, crop residues competition between CA use and livestock feeding, skilled and scientific manpower availability and overcoming the bias or mindset about tillage. CA provide opportunities to reduce the cost of production, improve resource use efficiency, saves water and nutrients and increase yield. There is a need to develop and promote low-cost technologies of CA that can be used effectively in maize based system of hills and Terai.

Soil quality and productivity improvement: Indian story

Restoration and improvement of soil quality is the prerequisite for ensuring agricultural productivity and food security in India. Although intensification enhanced food production, it led to a decline in factor productivity, health of environment, and an impairment in soil quality. The declined soil quality is manifested through impaired ecosystem services and also loss in yield and profitability. Soil organic C (SOC) is considered as the panacea for maintaining the soil quality through improved microbial activities, water availability and nutrient use efficiency. The present review emphasizes the need for maintenance of SOC content in Indian soils challenged with high oxidative loss out of high temperature, good moisture and cultivation led soil perturbations. Importance of balanced fertilization through soil test, integrated nutrient management, and adoption of innovative farming practices such as conservation agriculture for enhancement of SOC storage and consequent improvement in soil quality even under intensive cultivation in various agro-climatic regions of the country is emphasized.

No-Till Farming and Conservation Agriculture in South Asia – Issues, Challenges, Prospects and Benefits

Of late, intensive farming for higher food production is often associated with many negative implications for soil systems, such as decline of soil organic matter (SOM), increase in risks of soil erosion by wind and/or water, decline in soil biological diversity, increase in degradation of soil physical quality, lower nutrient-use efficiency, high risks of groundwater pollution, falling water tables, increasing salinization and waterlogging, in-field burning of crop residues, pollution of air and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), leading to global warming, and decline in factor productivity. These negative implications necessitate an objective review of strategies to develop sustainable management practices, which could not only sustain soil health and ensure food security, but also enhance carbon sequestration, decrease GHG emissions, and offer clean and better ecosystem services. Conservation agriculture (CA), that includes reduced or no-till practices along with crop residue retention and mixed crop rotations, offers multiple benefits. Adoption of a system-based CA conserves water, improves and creates more efficient use of natural resources through the integrated management of available soil nutrients, water, and biological resources, and enhances use efficiency of external inputs. Due to apparent benefits of CA, it is increasingly being adopted and now covers about 180 million hectares (Mha) worldwide. However, in South Asia its spread is low (<5 Mha), mostly concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). In this region, one of the serious issues is “residue burning” with severe environmental impacts. A huge amount of crop residue left over after the combine harvest of rice has forced farmers to practice widespread residue burning (∼140 M tonnes) to cope with excessive stubble and also for timely planting/sowing of succeeding crops. In rice-wheat cropping systems, which cover more than 10 Mha in the IGP, CA practices are relatively more accepted by farmers. In these systems, any delay in sowing leads to yield penalty of 1–1.5% per day after the optimum sowing date of wheat. The strong adoption of CA practices in IGP is mainly to overcome delayed sowing due to the field preparation and control of weeds, timely planting, and also escape from terminal heat during the grain-filling stage. Major challenges to CA adoption in South Asia are small land holdings (<1 ha), low technological reach to farmers, nonavailability of suitable farm implements for small farm holders, and the staunch conventional farming mind-set. South Asia region consists of many countries of diverse agro-ecologies with contrasting farming systems and management. This region, recently known for rapid economic growth and increasing population, necessitates higher food production and also hot-spots for adoption of CA technologies. Therefore, in this review critically explores the possibility, extent of area, prospects, challenges, and benefits of CA in South Asia. HIGHLIGHTS Conservation agriculture (CA), consisting of reduced or no-tillage and crop residue retention, is a self–sustainable system which offers an alternative to crop residue burning. The CA approach improves soil health by increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) and aggregation and also conserves soil, water and energy than conventional farming systems. South Asian countries are suitable for adoption of CA practices but the area under CA remains low (<5 Mha) as compared to the global area (180 Mha). Adoption of CA in South Asia has skewed distribution, mainly in Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh in South Asia. Development of herbicide-resistant weed species and weed shift by continuous application of herbicides are the major challenges in adoption of CA. The traditional-farming mind-set, socio-economic conditions, small farm-holdings, weed and residue management, and non-availability of suitable machinery are key constraints to the low adoption of CA practices in South Asia.

Site Specific Nutrient Management

Green revolution era has been the golden period for boosting the food grain production specifically in South-Asia, but the practice of irrational crop and nutrient management practices over the years has led to appearance of signs of fatigue in late 1980s with sharp decline in factor productivity, stagnation in crop yields with dwindling and marginal farm incomes; all of which are now posing a serious threat to food security, agricultural sustainability, soil and environmental health and rural agricultural economy in the developing world. The SSNM is need-based feeding of crops with nutrients while recognizing the inherent spatial variability which enhances crop productivity, profitability, NUE and avoids nutrient wastage. For efficient and effective SSNM, use of soil and plant nutrient status sensing devices, remote sensing, GIS, decision support systems, simulation models, and machines for variable application of nutrients play an important role. This paper deals with the SSNM technologies and tools which are able to enhance NUE, crop productivity and profitability, besides augmenting better farm livelihoods.

Integrated farming systems for prosperity of marginal farmers and sustainable agriculture: a roadmap for India

Agriculture in India and other Asian countries is facing multiple and complex challenges which are expected to become severe with the passage of time. Some major challenges are sustainability of natural resources, impact of climate change and decline in factor productivity. Besides, declining trend in size of land holding poses a serious challenge to the profitability and sustainability of farming. In view of the decline in per capita availability of land, it is imperative to develop strategies and agricultural technologies that enable adequate employment and income generation, especially for smallholders (farmers with &lt; 2.0 ha land) who constitute the vast majority of the farming community in the developing world. No single farm enterprise, such as a typical monocropping system, is likely to be able to sustain the smallholder farmer. Integrated farming systems (IFS) are less risky if managed efficiently, as they benefit from synergisms among enterprises, diversity in produce, and environmental soundness. On this basis, IFS have been suggested for the development of small and marginal farms across Asia, and researchers have developed strategies which have benefitted smallholder farmers by providing additional income and employment and minimizing risk. However, these IFS have not been promulgated and promoted effectively. The present review helps solve this by providing comprehensive information on innovative concepts, approaches and strategies for promotion of IFS for small-holder farmers, which is lacking at present.

Motivating and Attracting Youth in Agriculture

In India, the total youth population increased from 168 million in 1971 to 422 million in 2011 and in 2017, 356 million, against China's 269 million. India's population is expected to remain young probably longer than that of China and Indonesia. Unfortunately only around 5 per cent of the rural youth is currently getting engaged in agriculture. This is simply because they do not find agriculture a creative, profitable and above all a respectable profession. Thus, we do see an exodus of youth from rural to urban areas in search of alternative employment/option. Moreover, a clear strategy and enabling environment to motivate and attract youth in agriculture are lacking. Youth is disinterested mainly because of poor infrastructure, less education facilities, practically no skill development opportunities, lack of incentives and rewards, and problems of land ownership, credit facilities and availability, value chain and farmer-market linkages. In addition, agriculture is currently faced with numerous daunting challenges such as over-exploitation of land, water and agrobiodiversity, decline in factor productivity, costly inputs, low income and production uncertainties due to adverse effects of climate change. Under such a scenario, the involvement of youth in agriculture is a challenge since they are energetic, innovative, and more receptive to new ideas/adoption of advanced technologies rather than traditional agriculture. The present-day agriculture requires intelligence and hard work, strong will and commitment and hence, the future strategy should motivate the youth to become job providers and agents of change rather than to remain as job seekers. Thus, the new strategy should be to reorient present-day agriculture from crop based to farming systems’ mode based with emphasis on ‘plough to plate’ approach which is more relevant, efficient, demand-driven, productive, competitive and profitable. It must also ensure food, nutrition and environmental security for all, being important to achieve SDGs. The paper embraces the major challenges being faced, need for retaining youth in agriculture and the mechanism and strategies to motivate and attract youth in agriculture.

Soil fertility and on-farm crop response to NPK and Zn fertilization in rice-rice cropping sequence of Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam

Despite being a major source of livelihood, rice cultivation in the plains of the north-east region of India is under stress due to depletion of native nutrient reserves, emergence of multi-nutrient deficiencies and consequent decline in factor productivity of applied nutrients. With the aim to enhance productivity and to develop efficient fertilizer management strategies for the region, the authors discuss the status of post harvest soil properties and on-farm crop response to plant nutrients in rice-rice sequence under the climatic situation of Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam. Results revealed that the recommended dose of NPK fertilizers along with 5 Kg ZnSO4 application not only increases the yield of rice-rice sequence but also enhances the post harvest fertility status of soil.

Simulating farm income under the current soil management regime in the mid-hills of Nepal

Farmers in the mid-hills of Nepal follow diverse farming systems. The peri-urban area of this region, where population density is higher, faces several problems in farming. While hills suffer from erosion because they are erodible, the peri-urban areas face the problem of decline in factor productivity, particularly in intensively cultivated farmlands. The present study is concerned with simulating farm income on a regional scale based on soil management practices. Spatial explicit simulation shows that the loss of farm income due to degradation is substantially higher in hills while it is lower in valley bottoms. Strategy formulation and testing in the spatial environment indicates that Geographic Information System is an appropriate methodological tool for simulating the consequences of particular interventions. Key words: Mid hills, Nepal, spatial modeling, soil quality index, farm income DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hjs.v6i8.3243 Himalayan Journal of Sciences Vol.6 Issue 8 2010 pp.27-34

Wheat productivity and N use-efficiency as influenced by inclusion of cowpea as a grain legume in a rice–wheat system

In high productivity zones of the Indo–Gangetic Plain Region (IGPR) of India, the rice–wheat cropping system (RWCS) is exhibiting a decline in factor productivity, low N use-efficiency and deterioration in soil health. Inclusion of legumes in RWCS is advocated as one of the promising agro-techniques to sustain productivity. A field experiment was conducted during 1996/97 and 1997/98 on sandy loam (Typic Ustrochrept) soil of Modipuram, India (29°4′N, 77°46′E, 237 m above sea level) to explore the possibilities of inclusion of cowpea as a break crop in RWCS. The effect of rice or cowpea was measured on the yield, fertilizer N requirement and N use-efficiency in wheat, and also on the soil organic carbon and available N content. The yields of wheat following cowpea were significantly (P&lt;0·05) greater by 19–20%, compared with those following rice. In a cowpea–wheat rotation economic optimum dose of fertilizer N for wheat was smaller than that in a rice–wheat rotation due to increased N availability, better growing environment and greater N use-efficiency (measured as agronomic efficiency, apparent recovery and partial factor productivity) in the former case. On termination of the experiment, soil organic carbon and available N content increased over initial content with increasing rates of fertilizer N under both rotations, but the magnitude of increase was greater in treatments where cowpea preceded wheat.

Effect of continuous application of manures and fertilizers on productivity of cotton-sorghum rotation

Field experiments were conducted from 1985 through 2001 on medium deep vertisol to determine the effect of the continuous application of manure and fertilizers on a two-year cotton-sorghum rotation. The results indicate that the response to N was greatest during the initial years, while after five to six rotation cycles the yield levels declined to the zero level in the N and NK plots. The application of P along with N prevented the decline in seed cotton and sorghum grain yields. The effect was more pronounced at the higher level. K application did not result in any yield increase. Balanced fertilizer at the higher level (N90P19K37) resulted in a significant yield increase over the recommended dose (N60P13K25); however, the percentage increase declined with duration, indicating a decline in factor productivity. Seed cotton yields were the highest when part of the fertilizer N was applied from an organic source (farmyard manure: FYM). Of the eight years, a significant response was observed in four years at the lower level (N30P13K25 + 5 t FYM ha-1) and six years at the higher level (N45P19K37 + 7.5 t FYM ha-1), while in sorghum a response was only observed in two years. The cotton crop should, therefore, be preferred to sorghum for the application of organic manure. In areas where no organic manure is available, N60P13K25 is sufficient for cotton, while sorghum needs to be fertilized at 1.5 times the recommended dose (N90P19K37).

My journey in changing facets of agronomic research during three decades of green revolution in India

The changing facets of agronomic research in India as observed and followed by me during the past three de- cades, are reviewed in this paper. Green Revolution ushered in a new paradigm of agronomic management of crops in India. Fertilizer responsiveness of dwarf wheat generated heavy demand of fertilizers and gave major boost to the Indian fertilizer industry. Thus, due to the increased availability of fertilizers in the market, sugarcane farmers also started using heavy doses of N fertilizer to improve the cane yield, but at the cost of sugar content. Therefore, determination of optimum dose of N became important. In the first decade of my research career, I worked in this direction to work out the optimum dose and time of N application in sugarcane. Later on, with the in- troduction of fertilizer-responsive short-duration varieties in many crops like pulses and oilseeds, multiple cropping emerged as an important concept for intensification of agriculture. Consequently, I reoriented my research activi- ties to develop companion cropping system with sugarcane and worked out fertilizer requirement of different crop combinations. Within two decades of Green Revolution, due to expansion of irrigation facility, ricewheat crop rota- tion became predominant production system in the Indo-Gangetic plains, with gradual decrease in the area under pulse cultivation. Efforts were made to introduce pulses as companion crops of sugarcane for sustaining soil fertil- ity and providing extra income to cane growers. Within a short span of time rice-wheat system, due to heavy de- mand of nutrients developed soil fatigue and witnessed decline in factor productivity. My research interest again changed during 1980s towards conservation of soil-organic carbon, by utilizing the organic farm waste material and crop residues. Various options of green-manuring were also tried in rice-wheat and sugarcane-based cropping systems to achieve this objective and to increase the fertilizer-use efficiency. From high-input agronomy, my re- search interest thus, finally changed to conservation agronomy. Conservation of soil moisture through trash mulch- ing, in-situ decomposition of trash using bio-agents and bio-manuring to improve the soil fertility as well as nutri- ent-use efficiency has now become my prime concern. In sugarcane, the improvement in productivity of ratoon crop remained a major research activity throughout my career.

Rhizospheric environment and crop productivity: A review

Dwarf architecture of wheat and rice plants and their extensive cultivation made India a nation of food surplus. Realisation of higher crop yield required intensive use of fertilizers and water, which in turn resulted in over-exploi- tation of natural resources, leading to decline in factor productivity, soil organic C content, groundwqter table and multiple-nutrient deficiencies. Therefore, it has became essential to manage natural resources to sustain health and fertility status of the soil for maintaining adequate supply of water and nutrients to the crop plants. The rhizospheric environment, which regulates the dynamics of water and nutrient availability as well as their uptake by the roots from the soil, is crucial in this regard. Soil organic matter plays a key role in sustaining soil health. It has been envisaged that increase in the use of legumes in crop rotation, green manuring, organic mulches, farmyard manure (FYM), residue recycling, biological N, fixers and mycorrhizal associations along with effective use of soil microbes hold the key to sustain appropriate rhizospheric environment and crop productivity.

Use and Management of Poor Quality Waters for the Rice-Wheat Based Production System

Summary India's major improvements in food production have been made possible via a shift towards rice-wheat systems as a consequence of enhanced utilization of ground waters. Rice-wheat rotation covering 10.5 million ha contribute about 75 percent of total food production. But it is being observed now that yield increases in rice and wheat has slowed down and there is rather a decline in factor productivity. One of the major reasons for this decline is indiscriminate use of alkali waters constituting about 25-42 percent of ground waters surveyed especially in the northwestern states of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). Because of high water requirements of the system, sodication rates of soil being irrigated and their steady state pH and sodicity values are much more (about 1.8 times) than that of the low water requiring rotations like millet/maize-wheat. So there has been a dilemma on whether or not rice-wheat system should be advocated with alkali irrigation waters. Consistent research efforts have lead to the guidelines for irrigation with such waters with respect to their amendment needs (gypsum requirements, frequency and mode of application), conjunctive use with canal waters and use of organic materials and chemical fertilizers, etc. These results do show that subject to the following of specific soil-water-crop management systems, it is possible to control the build up of sodicity in soils and sustain crop yields. Options available in terms of management practices and some of the researchable issue are discussed in this paper.