Recent global climate patterns have resulted in a higher occurrence of exceptionally high temperatures presenting substantial complications for agricultural productivity worldwide. Prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures, or heat stress, can cause irreversible damage to plant health. The intricate processes of plant growth and development, which rely on numerous temperature-sensitive biochemical reactions, are profoundly affected by the intensity and duration of heat events as well as the specific plant species involved (e.g., wheat). Therefore, a comprehensive understanding is essential to develop effective management strategies to mitigate heat stress and protect crop yield and quality. Heat stress occurring during critical growth stages can drastically reduce the productivity of staple food crops, threatening global food security. It can decrease agricultural output by up to 12% by impairing key physiological processes such as photosynthesis, reproduction and seed germination (decrease up to 25%). This review investigates how heat stress disrupts enzyme activities including rubisco, nitrate reductase, proteases, catalase, starch synthase and ATP synthase, leading to impairments in photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, protein synthesis, anti-oxidative defense and regulation of phytohormones. These disruptions negatively affect plant growth and yield. By examining the roles of protective mechanisms, such as, heat shock proteins, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants (ascorbic acid, carotenoids, flavonoids, α-tocopherol, catalase, glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase, and peroxidases), osmoprotectants (proline, glycine betaine, trehalose), phytohormones (abscisic acid, cytokinins and salicylic acid) and morphological adaptations, the review underscores the complexity and the interdependence of various defense systems in crop improvement strategies, focusing on the identification of key metabolic markers, stress-resilient traits and molecular targets for genetic enhancement.

Interest in conservation measures, including reduced tillage, zero tillage, and crop residue retention, is growing in major rice growing areas of the world; particularly in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Of late, research interest is increasing in India for a specialised method of cultivation known as natural farming, which aims at maintain the functional biodiversity of the farm with little or no use of external inputs. With the increasing water crisis at a global level, it became imperative to develop technologies that can reduce the water use, particularly in water-guzzling low land paddy, by developing alternate cultivation methods; direct seeded rice is one such technology. A two-year field experiment was carried out at two locations during 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 to find out the impact of different cultivation and varieties on the productivity and profitability of the rice–wheat cropping system. The experiments were conducted in split plot design, replicated thrice, with cultivation practices in the main plot and varieties of both wheat and rice in the sub plot. The results so obtained reveal that conventional tillage significantly out yielded other methods of cultivation in both the crops at both the locations, while significantly lower grain yield in both crops was observed from natural farming. Adoption of reduced tillage, zero tillage and natural farming reduced the grain yield of wheat by 4.6%, 10.9%, and 59.4% over conventional tillage, while the corresponding decline in grain yield of rice was 10.8%, 16.1%, and 34.0% with reduced tillage, zero tillage, and natural farming, respectively. Among the varieties tested, HPW 368 and Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 (HPR 2795) produced significantly higher grain yield of wheat and rice, respectively, at both the locations during both years. Conventional tillage among cultivation practices and HPW 368 and Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 (HPR 2795) among wheat and rice varieties also proved to be better in terms of various economic indicators, including gross return, net return, and ratio benefit cost ratio (B:C ratio).

Background: The rice-wheat cropping system is the prevailing agricultural method in the North-Western states of India, namely in the Indo-Gangetic plains. The practice of open burning of rice residue is frequently employed for expedient land preparation, but it has significant adverse impacts on both the environment and human health. These include the emission of greenhouse gases, loss of nutrients, elevated concentrations of particulate matter (PM), and disruption of the biological cycle. This research aims to investigate the implementation of effective management strategies in the rice-wheat cropping system, namely via the use of tillage-based crop cultivation techniques, stubble retention, and integration approaches. The objective is to enhance soil health features in order to augment crop yield and improve its attributes. Results: The research was carried out using a split plot experimental design, consisting of three replications. The main plot consisted of four different cultivation methods, while the subplot included three genotypes of both rice and wheat. The research demonstrates the enhanced efficacy of residue application is significantly augmenting soil nutrient concentrations compared to standard tillage practices (P < 0.05). This was accomplished by an analysis of soil nutrient levels, namely nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and organic carbon (OC), at a depth of 0–15 cm. The implementation of natural farming, zero tillage, and reduced tillage practices resulted in decreases in rice grain yields of 34.0%, 16.1%, and 10.8%, respectively, as compared to conventional tillage methods. Similarly, the implementation of natural farming, zero tillage, and reduced tillage resulted in reductions in wheat grain yields of 59.4%, 10.9%, and 4.6% respectively, in comparison to conventional tillage practices. Conclusion: Regarding the individual crop genotypes investigated, it was continuously observed that Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 and HPW 368 displayed considerably greater grain yields for both rice and wheat during the two-year experimental period. Furthermore, when considering different cultivation methods, conventional tillage emerged as the most effective approach for obtaining higher productivity in both rice and wheat. Additionally, Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 and HPW 368 exhibited superior performance in terms of various crucial yield components for rice (such as panicle density, grains per panicle, panicle weight, and test weight) and wheat (including effective tiller density, grains per spike, spike weight, and 1000-grain weight).

A field experiment was conducted during Kharif 2019 at the Experimental Farm of the Department of Agronomy of CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur (H.P.) to investigate the effect of different tillage systems and varieties on yield of rice. The treatments consist of three rice varieties (HPR 1156, HPR 2656 and HPR 2795) which were tested under three tillage systems viz., conventional tillage, and minimum tillage without residue and minimum tillage with residue retention. The experiment was set up in a split plot design, with the tillage system in the main plot and rice cultivars in the sub plots, and it was triple replicated. The texture of the soil at the test site was silty clay loam in texture, acidic in reaction and in terms of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, it was evaluated as medium. Significantly higher no. of panicles per meter square were observed in minimum tillage without residue though this treatment was at par with conventional tillage while significantly lower number of panicles m-2 were recorded with minimum tillage with residue retention. Significantly greater number of grains per panicle and panicle length were recorded in conventional tillage while minimum tillage with residue retention recorded lower values of number of grains per panicle and panicle length. Different tillage practices had no effect on the test weight of rice. Among different varieties tested, HPR 2656 recorded greater number of panicles per square meter which was at par with variety HPR 1156. Significantly higher number of grains per panicle and panicle length were recorded with HPR 2795 while the other two varieties were at par with each other. Rice variety HPR 1156 produced grains that had significantly greater test weight while the other two varieties (HPR 2795 and HPR 2656) were at par with each other with respect to this parameter. In terms of yield, conventional tillage produced much larger grain yield, straw yield, and biological yield and was at par with minimum tillage without residue. Among different varieties tested, HPR 2795 recorded much greater grain, straw and biological yields.

An importance of tillage, inorganic and organic nutrient sources in the mustard - soybean cropping system lies in their ability to enhance soil fertility, improve nutrient availability, optimize crop growth and yield, and promote sustainable agricultural practices. Any cropping system’s sustainability could be increased by implementing better management techniques like zero and reduced tillage with residue retention and better nutrient sources. A field experiment was conducted for four consecutive seasons (Winter 2019 to Rainy 2021) to compare the two enhanced management practices, zero and reduced tillage to conventional tillage across four levels of nutrient sources: 75 and 100% recommended dose of nitrogen through FYM and 75 and 100% recommended dose of fertilizers through urea, single super phosphate and muriate of potash in a two years experiment. Experiment results were evaluated in terms of nutrient status, profitability and productivity of Mustard-Soybean cropping system. The results show a substantial improvement in yield, nutrient status, and overall yield performance of mustard and soybean when using the full recommended dose of fertilizers combined with reduced tillage and mulching, compared to other treatment methods. The implementation of reduced tillage practices recorded significantly higher yield of mustard and soybean over conventional and zero tillage. System productivity and profitability i.e. mustard equivalent yield, productivity, gross returns, net returns, profitability and B: C (benefit: cost) was found to be improved with reduced tillage and 100% recommended dose of fertilizer under reduced tillage practices. To enhance cropping system productivity in various sub-humid regions worldwide, farmers can adopt reduced tillage techniques combined with the full recommended dose of fertilizers (100% RDF).