The conventional tillage based rice-wheat system (RWS) in Indo-genetic plains (IGP) of South Asia is facing diverse challenges like increase in production cost and erratic climatic events. This results in stagnated crop productivity and declined farm profitability with increased emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, 3-year multi-location farmer’s participatory research trial was conducted to assess the impact of crop establishment and residue management techniques on crop productivity, economic profitability and environmental footprints in RWS. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of combinations of improved agronomic technologies compared to farmer’s practices (FP) on crop productivity, profitability, resource use efficiency and environmental footprints. The experiment had six scenarios that is, S1-Farmer’s practice; Conventional tillage (CT) without residue; S2-CT with residue, S3- Reduced tillage (RT) with residue + Recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF); S4-RT/zero tillage (ZT) with residue + RDF, S5-ZT with residue + RDF + green seeker + tensiometer + information & communication technology + crop insurance and S6- S5 + site specific nutrient management. Climate smart agriculture practices (CSAPs; mean of S4, S5 and S6) increase system productivity and farm profitability by 10.5% and 29.4% (on 3 yrs’ mean basis), whereas, improved farmers practices (mean of S2 and S3) resulted in only 3.2% and 5.3% increments compared to farmer’s practice (S1), respectively. On an average, CSAPs saved 39.3% of irrigation water and enhanced the irrigation and total water productivity by 53.9% and 18.4% than FP, respectively. In all the 3-years, CSAPs with high adaptive measures enhanced the energy-use-efficiency (EUE) and energy productivity (EP) by 43%–54% and 44%–61%, respectively than FP. In our study, global warming potential (GWP), GHG emission due to consumption energy and greenhouse gas intensity were recorded lower by 43%, 56% and 59% in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) with high adaptive measures than farmers practices (3652.7 kg CO₂ eq. ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, 722.2 kg CO₂ eq. ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and 718.7 Mg kg⁻¹ CO₂ eq. ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). The findings of the present study revealed that CSA with adaption of innovative measures (S6) improved 3-year mean system productivity by 10.5%, profitability by 29.4%, water productivity and energy productivity by 18.3% and 48.9%, respectively than FP. Thus, the results of our 3-year farmer’s participatory study suggest that in a RW system, climate smart agriculture practices have better adaptive capacity and could be a feasible option for attaining higher yields, farm profitability, energy-use efficiency and water productivity with sustained/improved environmental quality in smallholder production systems of Eastern IGP of India and other similar agro-ecologies of South Asia. Finally, the adoption of these CSAPs should be promoted in the RW rotation of IGP to ensure food security, restoration of soil health and to mitigate climate change, the key sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Over the past decade, scientific studies have increasingly concentrated on the effects of global phosphorus (P) scarcity on food security. A comprehensive strategy that considers demand reduction and recycling possibilities is needed to address the global P scarcity. Reduced tillage along with crop residue retention could decrease fixation of P in soil, improve labile P content and enhance organic-P (Po) buildup and its mineralization by phosphatases; this could be an extra benefit of conservation agriculture (CA) in soils. To study the impact of long-term CA on soil organic and inorganic P fractions and their distribution, a long-term field trial was conducted under a maize-based cropping system with different tillage (zero tillage (ZT), permanent bed (PB) and conventional till (CT) and cropping system (maize–wheat–mungbean (MWMb), maize–chickpea–sesbania (MCS), maize–mustard–mungbean (MMuMb) and maize–maize–sesbania (MMS)). Phosphorus dynamics were studied through sequential fractionation (organic and inorganic P) at 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. The findings showed that a higher amount of soluble and loosely bound P (SL-P) was detected in ZT among the inorganic P fractions, whereas iron-bound P (Fe-P), aluminum-bound P (Al-P), reductant soluble P (RES-P) and calcium-bound P (Ca-P) were found higher in CT in both soil depths. Among Organic-P fractions, moderately labile and non-labile Po was found higher in PB and ZT but, in the case of labile Po, it was found insignificant with respect to tillage operations. Significant synergistic effects of winter legume (chickpea) with summer legumes (sesbania and mungbean) in crop rotation were observed on SL-P, Labile Po, Humic acid-Po, Alkaline phosphatase and MBP at 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depths. Given the potential relevance of understanding P dynamics for efficient P management in long-term conservation agriculture practices, our findings offers critical new insight for the P management for sustainable development.

Conservation agriculture ( CA ) based on best‐bet crop management practices may increase crop and water productivity, as well as conserve and sustain soil health and natural resources. In a 2‐year study, we assessed the effects of tillage and crop establishment ( TCE ) methods on productivity, profitability and soil physical properties in a rice–wheat ( RW ) system. The six TCE treatments were used to study the impact, which are puddled transplanted rice followed by conventionally tilled wheat ( CTPR – CTW ), direct‐seeded rice on the flat followed by zero‐till wheat ( CTDSR – ZTW ), zero‐till direct‐seeded rice with residue followed by zero‐till wheat with residue ( ZTDSR +R– ZTW +R), transplanted rice after rotavator puddling followed by zero‐till wheat ( RTTPR – ZTW ), transplanted rice after rotavator puddling followed by rotary till wheat ( RTTPR – RTW ) and farmer practice rice–wheat ( FP – RW ). Result of the study revealed that mean rice yield was not significantly affected by different TCE methods. Wheat planted with ZTDSR +R– ZTW +R gave 30% larger grain yield than FP‐RW . Overall, among all the TCE treatments, the RW system yields and net returns were maximum under ZTDSR +R– ZTW +R. The fastest mean infiltration rate (0.10 cm hr ^–1 ) was registered in ZTDSR +R– ZTW +R plots, whereas the slowest was in FP‐RW plots (0.05 cm hr ^–1 ). Bulk density at 15–20 cm soil depth was least in ZTDSR +R– ZTW +R (1.70 Mg m ^–3 ) and greatest in FP‐RW (1.73 Mg m ^–3 ). Results from this study revealed that conventionally tilled ( CT ) and transplanting of rice could be successfully replaced by adoption of the profitable double ZT – RW system.