Person: Bishnoi, D.K.
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Bishnoi
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Bishnoi, D.K.
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- On-farm economic and environmental impact of zero-tillage wheat: a case of North-West India(Cambridge University Press, 2015) Aryal, J.P.; Sapkota, T.; Jat, M.L.; Bishnoi, D.K.Conducting farmers participatory field trials at 40 sites for 3 consecutive years in four rice-wheat system dominated districts of Haryana state of India, this paper tested the hypothesis that zero tillage (ZT) based crop production emits less greenhouse gases and yet provide adequate economic benefits to farmers compared to the conventional tillage (CT). In each farmer's field, ZT and CT based wheat production were compared side by side for three consecutive years from 2009–10 to 2011–12. In assessing the mitigation potential of ZT, we examined the differences in input use and crop management, especially those contributing to GHGs emissions, between ZT wheat and CT wheat. We employed Cool Farm Tool (CFT) to estimate emission of GHGs from various wheat production activities. In order to assess economic benefits, we examined the difference in input costs, net returns and cost-benefit analysis of wheat production under CT and ZT. Results show that farmers can save approximately USD 79 ha−1 in terms of total production costs and increase net revenue of about USD 97.5 ha−1 under ZT compared to CT. Similarly, benefit-cost ratio under ZT is 1.43 against 1.31 under CT. Our estimate shows that shifting from CT to ZT based wheat production reduces GHG emission by 1.5 Mg CO2-eq ha−1 season−1. Overall, ZT has both climate change mitigation and economic benefits, implying the win-win outcome of better agricultural practices.
Publication - Operational manual for turbo happy seeder: technology for managing crop residues with environmental stewardship(CIMMYT, 2013) Jat, M.L.; Kapil; Kamboj, B.R.; Sidhu, H.S.; Singh, M.; Bana, A.; Bishnoi, D.K.; Gathala, M.K.; Saharawat, Y.S.; Kumar, V.; Kumar, A.; Jat, H.S.; Jat, R.K.; Sharma, P.C.; Sharma, R.; Singh, R.; Sapkota, T.; Malik, R.; Gupta, R.K.Multiple challenges associated with plough based conventional production practices that include deteriorating natural resources, declining factor productivity, yield plateau, shortages of water & labour and escalating costs of production inputs coupled with emerging challenges of climate change both in irrigated intensive systems as well as low intensity rainfed ecologies are the major threat to food security of South Asia (Jat et al, 2009; Ladha et al, 2009; Chauhan et al, 2012). Water and labour scarcity and timeliness of farming operations specially crop establishment under the emerging climatic uncertainties are becoming major concerns of farming all across farmer typologies, production systems and ecologies in the region (Chauhan et al, 2012). In many parts of South Asia, over-exploitation and poor management of groundwater has led to declining water table and negative environmental impacts. Conventional tillage based flooded rice receiving the largest amount of fresh water compared to any other crop is the major contributor to the problems of declining groundwater table ranging from 0.1– 1.0 m year-1 specially in north-west India and increasing energy use and costs. The problem has further been intensified with the unavailability of labour in time, and multi-fold increase in labour costs. Fragmented land holdings and nucleus farm families further exacerbates the problem of availability of farm labour. Potential solutions to address these issues include a shift from intensive tillage based practices to conservation agriculture (CA) based crop management systems (Saharawat et al, 2010; Jat et al, 2012; Gathala et al, 2013). Direct drilling (seeding/planting with zero tillage technology) is one such practice that potentially addresses the issues of labor, energy, water, soil health etc (Malik et al 2005; Gupta and Sayre, 2007; Jat et al, 2009; Ladha et al, 2009; Gathala et al, 2011; Jat et al, 2013) and adaptations to climatic variability (Jat et al, 2009; Malik et al, 2013). One of the key elements of CA is rational soil cover with organics (crop residues, cover crops etc) has greater relevance not only in terms of managing the agricultural waste but particularly for eliminating burning, improving soil health, conserve water, help in adaptation to and mitigating of climate change effects. Globally, annual production of crop residues is estimated at 3440 million tonnes of which large quantities are not managed properly. In India alone, more than 140 million tonnes of crop residues are disposed of by burning each year. In rice-wheat system of the IGP of South Asia, the disposal of rice residues is one of the major challenges due to poor quality for fodder, bioconversion, and engineering applications. In most combine harvested rice fields of western IGP, the rice residues are burnt before planting of wheat. The field burning of crop residues is a major contributor to poor air quality (particulates, greenhouse gases), human respiratory ailments, and the death of beneficial soil fauna and micro-organisms. During burning of crop residues around 80% of carbon is lost as CO2 and a small fraction is evolved as CO. Burning involving incomplete combustion can also be a source of net emissions of many greenhouse gases including CO, CH4, SO2 and N2O. Crop residue burning accounts 6.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emission annually in India (INCCA, 2010). Apart from loss of carbon, up to 80% loss of N and S, 25% of P and 21% of K occurs during burning of crop residues (Ponnamperuma, 1984; Yadvinder-Singh et al., 2010). For managing residues of combine harvested crops and field (loose as well as anchored) as surface mulch and realize multiple benefits of improve crop yields, conserve soil moisture, saving of irrigation, buffer soil temperature, improve SOC, adapt to terminal heat effects in addition to environmental benefits through eliminating burning, ‘Turbo Happy Seeder’, is now available, which is capable of direct drilling (ZT) into heavy surface residue loads in a single operation. Many of the farmers in India and elsewhere have started using Turbo Happy Seeder for residue management. However, one of the major constraints in large scale adoption of this technology as well as sub-optimal use efficiency of planter is the lack of skills/knowledge on operation, calibration and maintenance of the machinery. There are different field situation specific adjustments needed before the use of the machine in the field. These adjustments include proper seeding depth, fertilizer rate and the seed rate etc as per the crop and field conditions to realize the potential benefits of the technology. There are several machinery manufacturers who supply these planters but the operational manuals are not available for making adjustments, calibrations under local conditions. In absence of the proper operational guidelines and protocols for efficient use of this machine by the farmers, service providers, extension agents, many a times the desirable results are not achieved and even contradictory results are observed. This results in slow down the adoption rates of the technology. Also, in absence of simple guidelines for maintenance of the machine, the farmers/service providers need to make huge investments on repairing at the start of the season. Therefore, we attempted to develop an operational manual to provide simple guidelines for calibration, operation, maintenance and troubleshooting for efficient use of turbo happy seeder by the range of stakeholders including farmers, service providers, extension agents and researchers.
Publication - Characterizing the cereal systems and identifying the potential of conservation agriculture in South Asia(CIMMYT, 2012) Krishna, V.; Mehrotra, M.B.; Teufel, N.; Bishnoi, D.K.Conservation agriculture (CA) and related resource conserving technologies (RCTs) potentially offer a way to sustainably increase the agricultural productivity in developing countries. These practices, which involve minimal soil disturbance, residue retention and crop rotations, can potentially help farmers increase crop yields and reduce the costs of production. The present paper includes the major findings of a set of village level surveys aiming at the characterization of the cropping systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) with a special focus on the potential entry points for CA-related technologies. The study area comprises of four regions in the IGP, namely Indian Punjab, Haryana, Central Nepal Terai and northwest (NW) Bangladesh. The village surveys were conducted in three districts from each of these regions, which were selected based on the prevailing cropping systems. From each of the selected districts, three sub-district units (blocks in India, Village Development Committees in Nepal and Union Councils in Bangladesh) were chosen randomly from a set of blocks with project intervention. Finally, one intervention village (for the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project or CSISA) and one non-intervention (control) village were selected from each of these units. In this way, data from 72 villages were collected through focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted from April-May 2010. The tools used to gather information for the present study were FGDs and village census. The IGP has traditionally been the major grain producer of South Asia. On the one hand, the NW Plains, including Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, have a relatively favorable rice-wheat environment, dominated by wheat and irrigated rice. On the other hand, the eastern IGP regions, including the Nepal Terai and Bangladesh, have a less favorable rice-wheat environment, dominated by rainfed rice and partially irrigated wheat. Significant intra-regional differences with respect to resource endowments and incidence of poverty also exist. The NW Plains have a higher level of resource endowment and lower incidence of income poverty as compared to the eastern IGP. The cropping pattern in all the study regions consists primarily of rice and wheat. In addition, some farmers grow cotton and sugarcane in Haryana and Punjab. The cropping pattern of Central Nepal Terai is more diverse compared to the NW India, with significant share of acreage under vegetables, legumes and oilseeds. Among cereals, rice is more prominent than wheat and other cereals (e.g. finger millet and maize) are also cultivated. In NW Bangladesh, rice is cultivated in all the three cropping seasons while wheat and maize are cultivated on a limited scale. The landholding size is larger in Punjab and Haryana compared to Nepal and Bangladesh. A significantly larger proportion of landless households is engaged in non-farm activities. Land tenure systems also differ widely across the regions. In Punjab and Haryana, it is the relatively large farmers, with average landholding of 5-6 acres, who are engaged in leasing-in of land for cereal production, thereby utilizing economies of scale. On the contrary, marginal and small farmers and the landless are leasing-in land for cultivation in NW Bangladesh. In Central Nepal very few farmers were found to lease-in land for cultivation. This difference in land ownership is of critical importance as the existing land tenure system in the eastern plains could indicate greater livelihood vulnerability, making the farmers more exposed to risks and averse to the adoption of new agricultural practices including the CA-based RCTs. As part of the characterization of production systems, details of livestock production were collected in both FGDs and village census. According to the village census, nearly all the farming households in India’s NW states maintain dairy animals, while this figure is just around 50% in Central Nepal and NW Bangladesh. The considerable importance of dairy animals is also reflected in the herd sizes relative to available farm land. Fodder crops are only grown in NW India and even there the proportion is limited. Crop residues are the major source of fodder for all livestock in the investigated villages.
Publication - Direct seeded rice technology in Western indo-gangetic plains of India: CSISA experiences(CSISA, 2012) Kamboj, B.R.; Kumar, A.; Bishnoi, D.K.; Singla, K.; Kumar, V.; Jat, M.L.; Chaudhary, N.; Jat, H.S.; Gosain, D.K.; Khippal, A.; Garg, R.; Lathwal, O.P.; Goyal, S.P.; Goyal, N.K.; Yadav, A.K.; Malik, D.S.; Mishra, A.; Bhatia, R.This bulletin summarizes the experiences of direct seeded rice (DSR) during CSISA, phase-I (2009-2011) as well as outcomes of a multi stakeholder travelling seminar on dry direct seeded rice (DSR) organized by Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) Haryana Hub on 20th September 2011. About 70 stakeholders of CSISA Haryana hub including scientists from Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI) and Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s (KVKs), officers from State Department of Agriculture, agriculture extension officers from private sector, members of Technical Working Group (TWG) of Haryana hub, local machine manufacturers, and participating farmers gathered together to share their experiences on DSR. The underlying objectives were to (i) visit on-farm and on-station trials on DSR in Karnal district of Haryana for participatory assessment and learning of performance and potentially of DSR, (ii) create awareness about DSR technology, (iii) facilitate interaction among different stakeholders who are engaged in developing, refining and out-scaling of DSR technology and share experiences, (iv) summarize and update technological package of DSR for Haryana, (v) identify constraints associated with DSR, and (vi) identify the future research needs. The travelling seminar was strategically structured into two parts; (i) visit farmer participatory DSR fields as well as on-station strategic research trials on DSR and (ii) a round table discussion by all stakeholders. During field visit, a total of three sites were covered, including one on-station site (CSISA Research Platform at CSSRI, Karnal) and two farmer’s participatory conservation agriculture (CA) modules established with innovative farmer cooperatives at village clusters of Taraori and Modipur of Karnal district. At CSISA Research Platform, performance of zero-till (ZT) DSR under double ZT systems was elucidated to the participants. In addition, trials on weed management and varietal screening for DSR conditions were briefed. At farmer participatory CA modules at Modipur & Taraori, participants were exposed to large scale demonstrations on DSR and adaptive research trials on different component technologies of DSR (varietal evaluation, weed management, water management and nutrient management) conducted through farmer cooperatives in collaboration with CSISA hub and partners. Based on large number of demonstrations on DSR using superfine varieties and hybrids of rice conducted in 8 hub districts across 3 years (2009-2011), it was verified that grain yield of DSR in comparison to puddled transplanted rice was either similar or higher with US$ 128-137/ha higher net profitability. Demonstration on DSR under double ZT system at village Taraori was also highly appreciated as the population of earthworms and vermicast was visible on the plot. All the participants were impressed with the performance of DSR and potential benefits it can endow on farmers like savings in labour, water (20-25%), and cost of cultivation. During round table discussion on DSR at CSSRI Karnal, Dr. D. K. Sharma (Director, CSSRI & TWG Chair, CSISA Haryana) highlighted the importance of DSR while elaborating the issues of declining water table due to over exploitation of groundwater, labour scarcity, escalating cost of cultivation and deteriorating soil health under current management practices of rice-wheat cropping system. CSISA Hub coordinator, Haryana) while sharing the joint experience of CSISA and partners on DSR in Haryana, presented the summary of the technological package of DSR for Northwestern IGP including Haryana for discussion and finalization of the recommendations of DSR package for large scale delivery. This was based on the outcomes of farmers’ participatory adaptation and demonstrations of DSR and its component technologies in Haryana in CSISA phase-I during past 3 years (2009-2011). Approaching the consensus, everyone confirmed that precise land levelling with laser land leveller, effective weed management, precise sowing depth and time of sowing are critical for the success of DSR. The DSR technology may also play vital role in recharge of groundwater and reduction in water runoff during heavy rainfall. Partners from public (KVK’s, ICAR, CCSHAU) and private sector (DevGen seeds, Bayer, HKB) shared their experiences on DSR and advocated its large scale promotion. Participating farmers also shared their experiences and found weed control being the most challenging task in DSR and thus achieving optimal weed control a route to its success. They experienced that pre and post-emergence herbicide application is important to manage weeds effectively in DSR. The issue of poor crop establishment due to sudden rainfall soon after sowing was also put up by some of the farmers. All participants very much convinced about DSR, pledged to make it a revolution in Haryana, and hence emphasized the access to literature on technology package for DSR. Finally, the participants suggested that to attain potential benefits of the DSR technology, further refinements of some of the component technologies for example varietal development for DSR, water management, nutrient management etc needs immediate efforts of the researchers.
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