Sustainability, productivity, profitability and soil health with conservation agriculture based sustainable intensification of oilseed brassica production system

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 13366
• Main Authors: Jat, R. S., Choudhary, R. L., Singh, H. V., Meena, M. K., Singh, V. V., Rai, P. K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 28-06-2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/106; 704/172; Agricultural conservation; Agricultural economics; Agricultural ecosystems; Agricultural production; Agriculture; Brassica juncea; Climate change; Conservation; Crop residues; Crop yield; Economics; Edible oils; Farms; Grain; Humanities and Social Sciences; Irrigation water; multidisciplinary; Oilseeds; Organic carbon; Organic soils; Productivity; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Soil conservation; Soil degradation; Soil depth; Sustainability; Sustainable yield; Tillage; Water quality; Water scarcity
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92801-z

Conservation agriculture (CA) practices are getting space world-wide to answer many emerging challenges like; declining factor productivity, deteriorating soil health, water scarcity, climate change, and farm profitability and sustainability. Oilseed brassica (Indian mustard,
Brassica juncea
L.), a winter oilseed grown under rainfed agro-ecosystem is vulnerable to low yields, high production cost, degrading soil and water quality, and climatic vagaries. The present study was undertaken on CA-based sustainable intensification of Indian mustard for enhancing inputs efficiencies, farm profitability and sustainability. Permanent beds with residue retention (PB + R) improved mustard equivalent yield (11.4%) and system grain yield (10.6%) compared with conventional tillage without residue (CT − R). Maize–mustard rotation (Mz–M) increased system grain yield (142.9%) as well as mustard equivalent yield (60.7%) compared with fallow-mustard (F-M). Mz–M system under PB + R increased sustainable yield index (376.5%), production efficiency (177.2%), economic efficiency (94%) and irrigation water productivity (66%) compared with F-M under CT − R. PB + R increased soil organic carbon (SOC) stock at 0–15 cm (17.7%) and 15–30 cm (29.5%) soil depth compared with CT − R. Addition of green gram in rotation with mustard improved SOC at 0–15 cm (27.4%) and 15–30 cm (20.5%) compared with F-M system. CA-based cluster bean-mustard/GG-M system increased N productivity, whereas, P and K productivity improved with Mz–M system compared with F-M under CT − R. Thus, CA-based Mz–M system should be out-scaled in the traditional rainfed fallow-mustard system to improve the farm production and income on holistic basis to make the country self-sufficient in edible oils.