Browsing by Author "Poulami Saha"

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Conservation tillage and nutrient management effects on productivity and soil carbon sequestration under double cropping of rice in north eastern region of India
(Elsevier B.V., 2019) Gulab Singh Yadav; Rattan Lal; Ram Swaroop Meena; Subhash Babu; Anup Das; S.N. Bhowmik; Mrinmoy Datta; Jayanta Layak; Poulami Saha
The rice (Oryza sativa)–rice system (RRS) is the most important agricultural production system, and it provides staple food, income, employment, and livelihoods to millions of farmers in the Indian sub- continent, especially in the eastern and north eastern region (NER) of India. However, soil degradation, due to loss of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools, is declining the productivity of RRS and threatening the region's food security. Intensive tillage along with improper residues and nutrient management practices are among the reasons of the loss of soil C and N pools and decline in rice productivity. Therefore, a 3-year (2013-15) field study was conducted to evaluate the effects of tillage, residues and nutrient management practices on productivity, soil C and N sequestration in RRS at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Research Complex for the North Eastern Hill (NEH) Region, Lembucherra (52 m, above sea level), Tripura, India. The experiment consisted of five combinations of tillage [conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and no-till (NT)], residue [30% rice residue incorporation (RI) and/or residue retention (RR)] and nutrient management practices [inorganic, organic (FYM-farmyard manure, GLM-green leaf manuring) and biofertilizers] in wet (WR) and dry season rice (DR). Results revealed that RT along with improved plant nutrient management (IPNM) comprising 25% N (20 kg N) through GLM + 60 kg N, 9 kg phosphorus (P), 17 kg potassium (K), 2 kg Boron (B) and 5 kg zinc (Zn) ha−1 through fertilizer + cellulose decomposition microorganism and RR in WR produced significantly higher grain yield (5.15 Mg ha−1) as compared to other treatments. However, the DR transplanted under CT + integrated nutrient management (INM) comprising 25% N through FYM and 75% N and remaining P and K (after deducting quantity supplied by FYM) through inorganic fertilizer + RI produced more grain (5.1–5.3 Mg ha−1), straw (7.0–7.2 Mg ha−1), root (1.3–1.4 Mg ha−1) and total biomass (13.4–13.9 Mg ha−1) yield than that of the farmers’ practice (FP) and other treatment combinations, across the years. The highest system productivity of RRS was recorded under T3 (RT + IPNM + RR in WR and CT + INM + RI in DR). Therefore, the highest biomass, C, and N were also recycled in the system through the same treatment combinations. Soil under T3 had a lower bulk density (ρb), the highest soil organic carbon (SOC)/N concentration, pool, accumulation, sequestration, C retention efficiency, soil microbial biomass C and dehydrogenase activities than other treatments. A total amount of 1.30 Mg C ha−1 was accumulated under soils of T3 with the rate of SOC sequestration of 427.9 kg ha−1 yr−1 under RRS. Thus, adopting RRS under RT/NT with INM/IPNM and effective residue recycling is recommended for enhancing the system productivity, C and N sequestration in paddy soils of the NER of India. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd
Energy budget and carbon footprint in a no-till and mulch based rice–mustard cropping system
(Elsevier Ltd, 2018) Gulab Singh Yadav; Anup Das; Rattan Lal; Subhash Babu; Ram Swaroop Meena; Poulami Saha; Raghavendra Singh; Mrinmoy Datta
The increase in emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) due to anthropogenic perturbation in both the agricultural and natural eco-systems are degrading the environmental quality. Conventional tillage (CT) and residue burning/removal exacerbates the land degradation and GHG emission, and the impacts are much more in the upland ecosystem than valley lands. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the energy budget, and carbon footprint (CF) of no-till (NT) and mulches under the upland rice (Oryza sativa)–mustard (Brassica campestris var. toria) cropping system over CT based system to develop a clean production technology for improving the environmental quality and conservingnatural resources. The novelty of the study is that integrated effect of NT, diverse mulches and cropping system effect has been considered together as a conservation measure for sustainable and clean agricultural practice over those of CT based technologies. The experiment comprised of two tillage systems as the main-plot and four mulch types as the sub-plot treatments under a split-plot design. Two tillage systems included: 1. CT-RI: CT with 100% residue incorporation (RI), and 2. NT-RR: NT with 100% residue retention (RR). Four mulch types included: 1. rice straw mulch (SM), 2. green manure (GM) - Gliricidia sp. (a leguminous shrub) mulch, 3. brown manuring (BM) mulch [cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) grown as an intercrop and killed with a spray of 2, 4-D, 40 days after sowing (DAS)] and 4. no mulch (NM) control. The adoption of NT-RR significantly (p = 0.05) reduced the energy use (16,727 MJ/ha) and the cost of production (INR 54,271/ha, 1 US$ = 64.46 INR) compared with those under CT-RI (27,630 MJ/ha and INR 76,903/ha, respectively). Thus, NT-RR also increased the energy use efficiency (EUE), energy productivity (EP), net returns, and reduced CF of the system compared with those under CT-RI. Use of different mulches also increased the energy use efficiency, system productivity, and net returnscompared with those under NM. The total CO2-e emission (CF) was higher under CT-RI (2307 kg CO2-e/ha) as compared to those under NT-RR (2013 kg CO2-e/ha). The savings of fossil fuel from less number of tillage operations and also low emissions associated with energy consumed in manufacture, transport, repair and use of machines contributed to the lowest GWP under NT-RR. Thus, the study supports and recommended that the NT-RR with BM is an environmentally safe and clean production technology for enhancing the energy use efficiency, reducing the CF and cost of production of direct-seeded upland rice-mustard cropping system in India and similar agro-eco-regions elsewhere in the rice based cropping system in the world. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd
Energy budgeting for designing sustainable and environmentally clean/safer cropping systems for rainfed rice fallow lands in India
(Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Gulab Singh Yadav; Rattan Lal; Ram Swaroop Meena; Mrinmoy Datta; Subhash Babu; Anup Das; Jayanta Layek; Poulami Saha
Efficient utilization of rice (Oryza sativa L.) fallow (∼11.6 million hectares) systems can accelerate the growth of Indian agriculture. But, bringing more area under cultivation is an energy-demanding process and a source of gaseous emissions in the era of climate change. Hence, development of environmentally sustainable cropping systems require for efficient use of rice-fallow lands for sustainable productivity. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the objective to identify sustainable and environmentally safer cropping systems with low global worming potential (GWP) and low energy requirement for rice fallow land of India. Seven diverse crops (e.g., toria (Brassica campestris var. toria), lentil (Lens culinaris), field pea (Pisum arvense), garden pea (Pisum sativum L.), green gram (Vigna radiata), black gram (Vigna mungo) and maize (Zea mays)) were introduced in rice-fallow system by adopting no-till (NT) production technology to develop sustainable and environmentally cleaner production systems in a subtropical climate of Tripura, India. All these rice-based cropping systems were evaluated on the basis of the energy requirements and system productivity. Results indicated that rice had the highest energy input followed by that for maize and the least for lentil. System productivity regarding equivalent rice yield was the highest in rice–garden pea system. The relative amount of energy input in all cropping systems involved 44–54% for chemical fertilizers, 13–17% for land preparation, 12–15% for diesel and 11–14% for labor. Total energy input of 28,656 MJ per hectare (MJ/ha) was the highest for rice–maize and the lowest of 22,486 MJ/ha for rice–lentil systems. The highest system productivity and the highest energy productivity were obtained for the rice–garden pea system. The GWP was lower for legume-based than that for cereal and oilseed-based cropping systems. The lowest GWP of 7.97 Mg CO2e/ha per yr was observed for the rice-lentil cropping system and the highest GWP of 8.39 Mg CO2e/ha per yr for the rice-maize cropping system. The rice-vegetable pea and rice-lentil cropping systems also had low greenhouse gas emission intensity. The rice–pea and rice–lentil cropping systems are recommended for the region because of their low energy requirement, high energy and system productivity and low GWP. These systems are suited for the efficient utilization of rice fallow lands of eastern India to sustain productivity while adapting and mitigating the climate change. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd