Despite years of study and substantial investment in remediation and prevention, soil erosion continues to be a major environmental problem with regard to land use in India and elsewhere around the world. Furthermore, changing climate and/or weather patterns are exacerbating the problem. Our objective was to review past and current soil conservation programmes in India to better understand how production-, environmental-, social-, economic- and policy-related issues have affected soil and water conservation and the incentives needed to address the most critical problems. We found that to achieve success in soil and water conservation policies, institutions and operations must be co-ordinated using a holistic approach. Watershed programmes have been shown to be one of the most effective strategies for bringing socio-economic change to different parts of India. Within both dryland and rainfed areas, watershed management has quietly revolutionized agriculture by aligning various sectors through technological soil and water conservation interventions and land-use diversification. Significant results associated with various watershed-scale soil and water conservation programmes and interventions that were effective for reducing land degradation and improving productivity in different parts of the country are discussed.

Increased application of inorganic nitrogen has been the key component responsible for growth in cereal production. Due to continuously increasing application of Nitrogen (N) and its lower use efficiency along with environmental and health implications of leftover N, improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) through management and genetic manipulation require immediate attention. The way N is uptaken through better root architecture and improved transporters and assimilated and remobilized into storage organ influences NUE. Partitioning of N between leaves and stems, photosynthetic efficiency, rubisco activity and senescence of leaf decide N utilization efficiency. Genetic manipulation to improve NUE requires information on the extent of exploitable genetic variability and their genetic control, however, limited information about these traits limits development of efficient genotypes. MAS for QTLs associated with key enzymes involved in N uptake and utilization or transgenic by overexpressing the enzymatic gene shows great promise in the future. Furthermore, the interaction of NUE and other plant traits should be evaluated.

Knowledge about the yield gain over the years due to associated changes in the yield component traits is essential for a critical understanding of yield-limiting factors. To estimate genetic gain in grain yield (GY) and component agronomic traits of wheat varieties released between 1900 and 2016 for northwestern plain zone (NWPZ) of India and to identify agronomic and/or genetic basis of the realized gains, two sets of wheat varieties comprising mega varieties and two recently developed varieties were evaluated under timely sown, tilled, and early sown conservation agriculture (CA) conditions for four consecutive years under irrigated conditions. The average annual genetic gain in GY since 1,905 under timely sown irrigated conditions was found to be 0.544% yr⁻¹over the average of all varieties and 0.822% yr⁻¹(24.27 kg ha⁻¹yr⁻¹) over the first released variety, NP4. The realized mean yield increased from 2,950 kg ha⁻¹of the variety NP4 released in 1,905–5,649 kg ha⁻¹of HD3086 released in 2014. Regression analysis revealed a linear reduction in height and peduncle length (PL) over the years with a simultaneous and linear increase in biomass at the rate of 43.9 kg ha⁻¹yr⁻¹or relatively at 0.368% yr⁻¹mainly because of delayed heading and increased crop duration. Regression analysis showed no linear trend for tiller number and thousand-grain weight (TGW). Though harvest index (HI) was found to linearly increase relatively at the rate of 0.198% per annum, polynomial regression improved the fitness of data with the indication of no increase in HI since 1982. Interestingly, genetic gain evaluation under early sown CA conditions for 4 years showed similar relative gain (RG) [a relative improvement in varieties across breeding periods (BP)] (0.544% yr⁻¹) but with a higher absolute value (29.28 kg ha⁻¹yr⁻¹). Major mega varieties like Kalyan Sona, HD2009, PBW 343, HD2967, and HD3086, which occupied a comparatively larger area, were found highly plastic to the improvements in the production environment under timely sown conditions.

The root system architectures (RSAs) largely decide the phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) of plants by influencing the phosphorus uptake. Very limited information is available on wheat’s RSAs and their deciding factors affecting phosphorus uptake efficiency (PupE) due to difficulties in adopting scoring values used for evaluating root traits. Based on our earlier research experience on nitrogen uptake efficiency screening under, hydroponics and soil-filled pot conditions, a comprehensive study on 182 Indian bread wheat genotypes was carried out under hydroponics with limited P (LP) and non-limiting P (NLP) conditions. The findings revealed a significant genetic variation, root traits correlation, and moderate to high heritability for RSAs traits namely primary root length (PRL), total root length (TRL), total root surface area (TSA), root average diameter (RAD), total root volume (TRV), total root tips (TRT) and total root forks (TRF). In LP, the expressions of TRL, TRV, TSA, TRT and TRF were enhanced while PRL and RAD were diminished. An almost similar pattern of correlations among the RSAs was also observed in both conditions except for RAD. RAD exhibited significant negative correlations with PRL, TRL, TSA, TRT and TRF under LP (r = -0.45, r = -0.35, r = -0.16, r = -0.30, and r = -0.28 respectively). The subclass of TRL, TSA, TRV and TRT representing the 0–0.5 mm diameter had a higher root distribution percentage in LP than NLP. Comparatively wide range of H’ value i.e. 0.43 to 0.97 in LP than NLP indicates that expression pattern of these traits are highly influenced by the level of P. In which, RAD (0.43) expression was reduced in LP, and expressions of TRF (0.91) and TSA (0.97) were significantly enhanced. The principal component analysis for grouping of traits and genotypes over LP and NLP revealed a high PC1 score indicating the presence of non-crossover interactions. Based on the comprehensive P response index value (CPRI value), the top five highly P efficient wheat genotypes namely BW 181, BW 103, BW 104, BW 143 and BW 66, were identified. Considering the future need for developing resource-efficient wheat varieties, these genotypes would serve as valuable genetic sources for improving P efficiency in wheat cultivars. This set of genotypes would also help in understanding the genetic architecture of a complex trait like P use efficiency.