Climate smart agricultural technologies in rice-wheat water stressed regions of Punjab, India- A review

Abstract

Intensively cultivated rice-wheat cropping sequence of Punjab, India responsible for many sustainability issues viz. declining underground water, declining soil health, arising micro-nutrient deficiencies etc. Around 1.3 M ha-m additional withdrawal of water from the ground is being taken place annually in Punjab and mainly it is used for the rice crop which is not a traditional crop of the region. Puddling, seepage and percolation losses are the main sources of water loss from the rice based cropping systems in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGPs) and many Resource Conservation Technologies (RCTs) have been recommended for water saving. The real water saving techniques are those which hinder the water from going into those sinks from where it cannot be reused (Evaporation, E) and diverted greater fraction of water of ET toward transpiration (T) which is desired as greater transpiration, greater the inflow of water and nutrients andwhich ultimately increase the grain yield with the lesser consumption of irrigation water as interval in between two irrigation increases, which further increase the water productivity. Among different RCTs, short duration crop varieties and delaying transplanting time are the real water saving techniques for the regions where water table is already declining down, however other RCTs may be suitable for the regions facing water logging problems as these cut down the drainage losses and these energy saving rather than water saving techniques.