A six-year experiment (2009 to 2015) was conducted on sugarcane-based cropping systems in farmers’ fields to examine the effects of precision land leveling (PLL) compared to traditional land leveling (TLL) in terms of soil organic carbon (SOC), greenhouse gas emissions, irrigation water requirements, and system productivity and profitability. Twelve treatments compared different sugarcane sowing regimes and crops in rotation under both PLL and TLL. Spring-sown sugarcane grown in rotation with rice, potato, and wheat under PLL had the highest production (89.7 kg ha⁻¹ day⁻¹) and required 142 cm irrigation water, which was 35.1% less water than a commonly practiced cropping system with late-sown sugarcane grown in rotation with rice and wheat only under TLL). Cropping systems established under PLL had higher land use efficiency (ranging between 64.9 and 86.2%), higher energy productivity (90.7 to 198.6 GJ ha⁻¹), and lower greenhouse gas emissions (5249.33 to 944.19 kg CO₂ eq ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) than those under TLL. As well, treatments under PLL had increased levels of SOC, particularly in the upper soil layers, relative to SOC in treatments under TLL. Combining PLL with diversification of crops in sugarcane cropping systems has the potential to sustainably increase farmers’ land productivity and profitability while improving soil health and reducing irrigation requirements. These benefits are likely to have applications in other sugarcane-based cropping systems in similar agro-ecologies.

By 2050, the population of the world is anticipated to increase from 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion people, and, and wheat is expected to continue to play a vital role in ensuring food security globally. It is the main diet for 40% of the world’s population and supplies food for more than 4.5 billion people in 94 countries contains 21% of the joules and 20% of the protein. The present investigations were carried out during rabi 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 to determine how optimal nutrient management (INM) practices enhance fertilizer usage efficiency, productivity, soil health, and viability in wheat (Variety DBW 71) through innovative nutritional sources and their modes of application methods. The treatments comprised of, viz., control, basal applications of recommended NPK (80:60:40)/NPK granules (200 kg/ha) + FYM (5 t ha⁻¹) + bio-stimulant granules (62.5 kg/ha), +NPK bio-fertilizer (seed treatment), along with a top dressing of urea (20 kg/ha)/bio-stimulant (625 mL ha⁻¹)/NPK Powder (1%) sprays (40/55/70 DAS), which had triplicated randomized block design (RBD) at the crop research farm of SVPUA&T, Meerut (U.P.). The results revealed that wheat grown with incorporation of FYM and bio-stimulant –L attained significantly better growth and higher dry matter accumulation across the stages. The crop contained 1.63% N, 0.31% P, 0.69% K in grain, and 0.57% N, 0.11% P and 1.34% K in straw. Such crops exhibited agronomic, physiological, and apparent recovery efficiency of NPK of the order of 3.2 kg kg⁻¹ of nutrient applied, 14.0 kg kg⁻¹ of nutrient uptake, and 0.23% against recommended NPK. Applications of FYM, NPK bio-fertilizer+ urea, and bio-stimulant + NPK sprays worked synergistically and increased grain yields by 29.8, 35.2, 50.3 and 41.1% over their respective controls. The results also indicated that soil organic carbon (0.47%), available NPK (227.0, 27.7, 172.1 kg/ha), dehydrogenase activity, and microbial population (bacteria, fungal and actinomycetes) in soil was also highest with the treatment. Finally, the wheat crop required an investment of Rs ha⁻¹ 131,453 and fetched a net reoccurrence of Rs. 96,154, with benefits of Rs. 3.72 over cost, respectively. Therefore, the study reveals that integrated nutrient management, viz., FYM 5 t ha⁻¹ +NPK (12–32–16) -G @ 200 kg/ha + NPK bio-fertilizer (seed treatment) + urea @ 20 kg/ha, foliar application NPK (18−18−18) -P@ 1% and bio-stimulant –L 0.62 L ha⁻¹ improved the better growth, productivity, soil health and profitability of wheat crops. Finally, to boost production, the region must emphasize the wheat crop’s part in integrated nutrition management with foliar application of bio-stimulants. Furthermore, these investigations must be reinvestigated at different sites with different agro-climatic conditions and texturally divergent soils.

The Crop Research Centre of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology in Meerut (U.P.), India, conducted field experiments in a randomised block design, comprising three replicates, one late sown variety (DBW-90), and eight treatments, viz.: T1 was a conventional flood irrigation (CFI); T2, furrow irrigated with gated-pipe raised beds (FIGPRB); T3, all furrow irrigation (AFI); T4, alternate furrow irrigation (Alt. FI); T5, wide bed furrow irrigation (WBFI); T6, skip furrow irrigated (SFI); T7, Sprinkler irrigation (SI); and T8, Zero-till flat-irrigated using gated pipe/controlled-flood irrigation (ZTFIGP). These field experiments were conducted during the Rabi seasons of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the yield, water productivity, and soil health under different tillage crop establishment methods. Test weight, spike length, and productive tillers were all considerably enhanced in treatment T5, with the treatment’s statistical significance being similar to that of treatments T8 and T2. Treatment T5 considerably outperformed the other treatments in terms of grain yield, straw yield, biological yield (44.32, 61.88, and 106.19 q ha⁻¹, respectively), as well as harvest index (41.73). Thirty to sixty centimetres of soil were mined for the most water, followed by fifteen to thirty centimetres, zero to fifteen centimetres, and sixty to ninety centimetres. Both water-use efficiency (2.86 q ha⁻¹ cm) and water productivity (1.91 kg cm⁻³) were highest under T7 (Sprinkler irrigation). The maximum total NPK (113.69; 27.45; 127.33 kg ha⁻¹) was found in crops grown with wide bed furrow irrigation. The data also showed that treatment T6 (skip furrow irrigated) had the highest levels of accessible NPK in soil, followed closely by treatment T4 (alternate furrow irrigated). Treatment T8 (zero-till flat-irrigated using gated-pipe/controlled flood irrigation) had the highest bacterial, fungal, and actinomycete populations, followed by T5 (wide bed furrow irrigated) and T2 (furrow irrigated with gated-pipe/elevated bed). Our research showed that there may be more options for maintaining wheat crop water productivity and soil health under different agroecological conditions, including crop productivity, conservation tillage-based establishing methods, and irrigation regimes.

Residues of various crops are considered nuisance but they can be helpful in increasing organic matter in soil and better cycling of nutrients in soil if managed properly. Better management and utilization of crop residues (CR) is necessary for better productivity and quality of crops. Sowing into loose residues is the major issue in adapting the drill sowing method. Apart from the higher quantity of rice (192.82 mt) and wheat residue (120.70 mt), the residue of sorghum, maize, barley, chickpea, groundnut, rapeseed, mustard, sugarcane trash, potato, soybean, sunflower and some other minor cereals also contribute substantially towards total amount of about 462.93 million tonnes in India in 1997-98. Three quarters of the total residue is produced by rice, wheat and oil seed crops with remaining quarter coming from sugarcane and sorghum. Crop residue is important component of low external input for sustainable agriculture without sacrificing productivity. The crop residues left behind is considered as burden forcing farmers to burn them as cheap and easiest method with mistaken belief that it enhances the soil fertility and helps in controlling weeds, insects and pests. Different studies revealed that burning of residues causes air pollution and nutrient loss in soil. Improvements in soil properties and the sustainability in crop productivity could be achieved if CR are proper managed. Long-term field studies at sites carefully selected with variations in temperature, moisture, soil mineralogy and management of agricultural residues representing various cropping systems across regions should be identified and sustained. The possible benefits of crop residues for the improvement of degrading soil fertility would be completely understood only then. Owing to the competing requirements for such biomass for feed, fuel or building material, smallholder farmers typically find it difficult to maintain a soil cover for crop residue or a cover crop.

The current study was conducted to assess how optimal tillage water and nitrogen management system are adopted to reduce various field inputs, to improve water footprint (WF), nutrient use efficiency (NUE), rice productivity and profitability. The W₁ (CS to a depth of 5 cm) achieved significantly higher total water footprint (TWFP) compared to all other irrigation strategies. When N₁ (control) and N₂ (80 kg N ha⁻¹) was used, the highest TWFP was observed. The rice transplanted on wide raised beds (WBed-TPR) (0.71 kg m⁻³) yielded the greatest water productivity (WP_IRRI), followed by reduced tillage transplanted rice (RT-TPR) and conventional tillage puddled transplanted rice (CT-TPR). The physiological NUE values ranged from 33.3 to 50.6 kg grain/kg N absorption, the values decreasing as the N doses rose. According to the findings, WBed-TPR and RT-TPR plots similarly drank more moisture from the deeper profile layer than CT-TPR practice. In plots of CT-TPR and WBed-TPR, the yield contributing characteristics of rice all increased, while grain yield increased by 16.8% and 10.6% over NBed-TPR technique, respectively. Finally, CT-TPR reported with maximum cultivation costs, followed by NBed-TPR and the lowest in RT-TPR plots, although WBed-TPR had the highest net profit, B: C ratio.