Maintaining sustainable crop production on undulating, sloppy, and erodible soils in Shivalik foothills of North-west India is a challenging task. Intercropping is accepted as a highly sustainable system to reduce soil erosion and ensure sustainable production by making efficient use of resources. Field experiments were conducted in the rainy season (July to September) during 2015, 2016, and 2017 to evaluate the effect of land slopes and maize and cowpea strip-intercropping on productivity and resource conservation at the Regional Research Station, Ballowal Saunkhri located in the Shivalik foothills. During three years of experimentation, a total of 23–26 runoff events were observed in the maize crop grown in the rainy season. The results from this 3-year field study indicate that maize grain yield was significantly higher on a 1% slope and cowpea on a 2% slope. This accounted for significantly higher net returns (US$ 428 ha⁻¹) with a benefit-cost (BC) ratio of 2.0 on a 1% slope. Runoff, soil, and nutrient losses were higher on a 3% slope as compared to 1% and 2% slopes. N, P, and K loss on a 3% slope were 3.80, 1.82, and 4.10 kg ha⁻¹ higher, respectively than a 1% slope. The adoption of a strip-intercropping system with a 4.8 m maize strip width and 1.2 m cowpea strip width resulted in significantly higher maize equivalent yield than sole maize and other strip-intercropping systems. This system showed the highest land equivalent ratio value (1.24) indicating a 24% yield advantage over sole cropping systems of maize and cowpea, and fetched the highest net returns (US$ 530 ha⁻¹) with a benefit-cost ratio (BC ratio) of 2.09. This system also reduced runoff and soil loss by 10.9% and 8.3%, respectively than sole maize crop. On all the land slopes, maize and cowpea strip-intercropping systems showed a significant reduction in N, P, K, and organic carbon loss as compared to sole maize. Thus, on sloping land, the maize and cowpea strip-intercropping system decreases surface runoff, soil, and nutrient loss, and increases yield and income of the farmers as compared to a sole maize crop.

Large weed infestation is a major problem in dry direct-seeded rice (DSR). Chemical weed control serves as a crucial component for integrated weed management in DSR. Over the last decade, herbicide use has increased from 42 to 55%, and the worldwide contamination of water resources and food by herbicides is a major health issue. In the present study, the use of herbicides in three different establishment methods of rice was examined with the objective to present and discuss the herbicide use pattern and cost of weed control. For this, a field-wide survey was conducted over an area of 165.4 ha in eight villages of the Tarn Taran District of Punjab, India. For two DSR methods, during the initial stage of crop growth, the weed infestation was reported to be less in moist fields sown with direct seeding (soil moisture in the field capacity stage) after pre-sowing irrigation (DSR-PSI). The herbicide use and cost of weed control under DSR-PSI conditions were similar to that of puddled transplanted rice, but were significantly lower than that of direct seeding in dry fields (rice seeds are sown in dry fields, and irrigation is applied immediately after sowing), i.e., DSR-IAS. Therefore, the DSR-PSI method of rice establishment can ensure minimum dependence on herbicides, as well as other benefits of direct seeding. Thus, there is a need to promote the DSR-PSI method over the DSR-IAS method among farmers in order to reduce herbicide use in DSR and ensure environmental safety.