S Bhaskar’s research while affiliated with Indian Institute of Management & Research and other places

The present work based on multi-location study and literature review covers the scientific benefits of proven practices which are part of natural farming, emphasizing their role in soil health and sustainability. Shift from conventional high-input based agriculture to natural farming systems that prioritize resource conservation, soil fertility restoration, and environmental sustainability due to proven agronomic practices such as mulching, intercropping/cover cropping, minimum tillage besides locally prepared concoctions for keeping active soil biology. Key practices which include the use of bio-formulations such as Beejamrit and Jeevamrit, mulching, intercropping, and reduced tillage are found to be contributing for the collective improvement of soil organic carbon (SOC), nutrient cycling, and microbial activity. Characterization of bio-formulations indicated presence of larger and diverse nature of microbial communities in Jeevamrit and Gana jeevamrit which are essential for bio-conversions, nitrogen fixation, and also having compounds of antifungal, plant defense, etc. Multi-location study results revealed that yields are comparable with organic and integrated crop management inthe cropping systems involving legumes. Estimate from the study indicate concoctions contributed to the yield makeup to the tune of 7.8 to 25.8% in different conventional cropping systems while intercropping contributed 9.1 to 67.7% depending upon the crop combinations followed by mulching (11 to 25.7%). Soil organic carbon improvement under natural farming was found to be 5 to 18% in different cropping systems. The Chao1 and Shannon diversity index was found improved under natural farming compared to control and integrated crop management. Improvement in the activity of soil dehydrogenase (DHA), Fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis (FDA), β-glucosidase (BGA) and alkaline phosphatase by 26.5, 34.5, 14.4, and 18.8%, respectively was observed compared to control. Among different genera studied, after 03 years in soybean+maizewheat+chickpea cropping system, Desulfallas, Pseudomonas, Acineatobacter, Bacillus, and Serratia were found to be the major bacteria with varying proportion.

Dryland agriculture is as old as India’s agriculture. Before and at the time of independence, agriculture was the primary source of national income and occupation. Droughts had been recurrent making dryland agriculture more risk-prone and limiting production in dryland agriculture. Farmers practiced dryland farming that was built on decades of experience, mainly as subsistence farming. Prior to independence, the Indian agriculture sector exhibited primarily three traits, low production, high risk, and instability, and the production was alarmingly low. Agricultural policy underwent massive agrarian reforms between the 1950s and the mid-1960s. Droughts in the mid-1960s spurred the Indian government to invest significantly in dryland agriculture research. In 1970, the Government of India through the Indian Council of Agricultural Research initiated All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture in the country to address the problems in dryland agriculture. During the 1970s and 1980s, many soil-, water-, and crop-based dryland technologies were developed which were integrated into soil and water conservation programs in the states. This enabled the development and implementation of watershed programs at national level leading to 47 model watershed projects that resulted in productivity, income, and resource conservation gains in the dryland areas of the country. During and after the 1990s, many dryland agroecology-specific natural resource management and crop-based technologies were developed and integrated into various district, state, and national programs resulting in a sustainable production system. Contingency crop planning practices and strategies were developed and implemented to cope with delayed onset of monsoon and agricultural drought. The sustainability of dryland agriculture is impacted by climate risks and challenged by many biophysical and socioeconomic constraints. The research, development, and policy focus should be to achieve sustainable and climate-resilient dryland agriculture. Some future strategies in this direction are suggested in this chapter.KeywordsDryland agricultureWatershedsReal-time contingency planning

Decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing soil carbon (C) sequestration in cropland are necessary to achieve carbon neutrality at national scale. The major objective of this study is to quantify the GHG mitigation potential of adopted climate resilient (CR) practices in CR villages using ExACT tool developed by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Intensively cultivated area of Punjab and Haryana was selected for carrying out this study. In both the states, villages were selected by considering the climate for past 30 years. In the selected villages, a set of CR practices were implemented in annuals, perennials, irrigated rice, fertilizer use, land use change and livestock and quantified the GHG mitigation potential in these villages for next twenty years. The tool predicted that the CR practices adopted were successful in enhancing the overall sink (carbon balance) in all the study villages. The villages of Punjab had recorded higher mitigation potential as compared to the villages of Haryana. The overall sink potential in these villages ranged from − 354 to − 38309 Mg CO 2-eq. The change in sink potential varied from 3.16 to 112% with lowest in Radauri and highest in Badhauchhi kalan village. The sink potential got doubled in Badhauchhi kalan village due to stopping rice straw burning and increase in area under perennials by 25%. The source potential varied from 6.33 to − 7.44% across the study villages. Even with the implementation of NICRA, there was increase in source by 5.58 and 6.33% in Killi Nihal Singh Wala and Radauri due to irrigated rice, land use change and livestock. Majorly, rice straw burning was seen in most of the study villages, yet, with proper residue management and adoption of CR practices (mainly intermittent flooding) in rice cultivation resulted in emissions reduction up to 5-26% with enhanced productivity up to 15-18%, which can be considered for scaling up. Fertilizer management reduced the emissions by average of 13% across the study villages. Farm gate emission intensity per ton of milk and rice recorded highest emission intensity compared to annuals and perennials suggesting strict implementation of CR practices in rice cultivation and livestock sector. Implementation and scaling up of CR practices could potentially reduce the emissions and make the village C negative in intensive rice-wheat production system.

Water deficiency is one of the most severe abiotic stresses in rainfed dry lands and limits crop productivity. Exogenous applications of salicylic acid (SA) have been applied to mitigate the adverse effects of water-deficit stresses, but the relative efficacy of different derivatives of SA in enhancing water-deficit tolerance along with the underlying physio-biochemical mechanism and yield of crops is not well documented. Field experiments were conducted to ascertain the relative efficacy of exogenous application of three plant bioregulators (PBRs) [SA, thiosalicylic acid and 5-sulfosalicylic acid (SSA)], each at three concentrations (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mM), on the growth, physio-biochemical characteristics and yield of cluster bean under rainfed conditions. Based on a 2-year field experiment, the application of PBRs enhanced yield (from 8 to 16%). The yield enhancement with the application of PBRs was associated with elevated water content (from 9 to 17%), membrane stability (from 12 to 18%) and antioxidant enzyme activity (from 12 to 33%) and reduced lipid peroxidation (from −15 to −34%) in leaves. The effects of PBRs were conditionally type and concentration dependent. The application of SSA at a rate of 1 mM was more effective in enhancing water-deficit tolerance and improving the yield of cluster bean under water shortage conditions. This study provides empirical evidence of the potential for the application of SA and its derivatives to enhance crop yields under drought conditions. The results have direct implications for sustainable crop production for similar regions of the world facing water deficits.

Despite a significant increasing trend in historical food grain production (FGP) in India, deficient Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) often causes a reduction in FGP. The present study was carried out to understand temporal and spatial variations in deficient rainfall (drought) and their impact on national and regional FGP of India. Long-term (1901-2020) percentage departure in rainfall and drought areas over the country showed nonsignificant and significant trends, respectively. Subdivisional rainfall showed significant decreasing and increasing trends in 4 and 5 subdivisions, respectively. Drought years of high frequency (once in 3-4 years) and 4 to 5 consecutive drought years (once in 120 years) occurred in northwest and western subdivisions of India. Departure in de-trended production of All India Kharif food grains from its normal (DDP) showed significant quadratic relationship with departure in ISMR from its normal (DRF). Besides the quadratic equation, another multiple regression model taking de-trended crop area, DRF, and drought area as predictor variables was developed for predicting DDP. Both these models, with high R2 (0.8-0.88) between observed and predicted data and low RMSE (2.6-2.7%), can be employed for advanced estimation of DDP of the country and for taking country-level policy decisions by the Indian Government. For the first time, models were formulated to estimate state-wise departure in FGP (DP). In these models, novel indices viz., (i) rainfall departure and irrigation index (RDII) and (ii) physical and socio-economic index (PSEI), were used as predictor variables. These models, with R2 (0.71-0.75) and RMSE of 11.8-14.2(< SD of observed data), hold promise for advance estimation of production loss in states, useful for regional-level planning by the Government of India, and testing them in other countries.

Improving the farming systems to attain the household level self‐sufficiency, land utilization efficiency and sustainable livelihood security depends on the better socio‐economic and ecological aspects of the systems practiced by the small farmers in the semi‐arid regions. The higher sustainable livelihood security index (SLSI) in integrated crops‐livestock system helps to restore economical and ecological sustainability. The aim of this study was to analyze how various modules of farming in different combinations have interacted with the diversification of existing systems on ecological security index (ESI), economic efficiency index (EEI), and social equity index (SEI) for providing SLSI of improved integrated farming system (IFS) compared with benchmark farming under semi‐arid regions. In this study, different existing IFS comprising of seven modules (field crops, dairy, goatery, poultry, horticulture, fishery and apiary) in different combinations were studied. Results revealed that 72.5% farmers preferred to integrate two modules, where 95% of farmers adopted field crops + dairy (FC+D) than other modules. The sustainability indicators like ESI (+43.3%), EEI (+16.0%), SEI (+11.6%), and SLSI (+6.0%) were improved in FC+D farming system than other IFS module combinations. Similarly, improved IFS interventions also increased sustainability indicators over benchmark farming. Based on large scale household studies over five years, our findings suggest that the improved IFS succeeded in providing a wider array of livelihood security than existing practices. Hence, the paradigm shift from component approach to an IFS based resilient system that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially acceptable are needed for development of semi‐arid regions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The dry spells and rainfall deficit within crop season, play vital role in determining productivity of rainfed crops. Dry Spell Index (DSI) was formulated to quantify cumulative impact of dry spells during kharif season (Jun-Sep) on major rainfed crops of India. District-wise variability of DSI were analyzed across rainfed regions of India using rainfall data of 1636 stations. Comparison of DSI with Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), hitherto, a widely used drought index showed that, central and eastern Karnataka, northern Rajasthan and western Gujarat are becoming wetter in terms of total seasonal rainfall as indicated by SPI, and becoming drier in terms of total dry spell duration within the season as per DSI. The impact of DSI on yield of major rainfed crops viz., cotton, groundnut, maize, pearl millet, pigeon pea and sorghum were estimated. The analysis showed that, the impact of dry spells integrated in form of the DSI on yields of six major rainfed crops was higher in comparison to total rainfall indicated by SPI for six major rainfed crops in India. Groundnut and pearl millet crops experienced higher duration of dry spells in comparison to other crops. The productivity of all the crops was significantly influenced by DSI across more than 65% growing regions. The yield loss was about 75–99% in 24% of sorghum, 23% of groundnut and 13% of pearl millet and it was about 50–74% in 44% of cotton, 24% of groundnut, 17% of maize, 16% each of pearl millet & sorghum and 12% of pigeon pea growing regions. We also found that by minimizing the cumulative impact of dry spells, yield can be increased twice in more than 55%, 49% and 42% areas of pearl millet, pigeon pea and groundnut growing regions, respectively. This study will help developing adaptation strategies to sustain crop production in rainfed regions of India.