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Conservation Agriculture: Issues, Prospects, and Challenges in Rainfed Regions of India

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Conservation Agriculture: A Sustainable Approach for Soil Health and Food Security

Abstract

In India, out of total cropped area (142 Mha), 86 Mha is under rainfed agriculture. These rainfed areas are prone to land degradation, dry spells, water scarcity, and increased poverty and malnutrition. Therefore, it is the urgent need for adopting cost-effective resource conservation technologies such as conservation agriculture (CA) that can act as an essential prerequisite for achieving enhanced productivity in the region. The crop residue burning not only deteriorates soil health but also has adverse environmental and ecological impacts. This is minimized with the retention/incorporation of the crop residue with minimal soil disturbances in CA technologies. It not only returns much needed C and other nutrients to the soil but also improves soil aggregation and reduces soil erosion. Availability of specialized machinery in CA is a greater problem as it is difficult to sow a crop in the presence of residues of preceding crop. However, with the widespread adoption of CA in India, new variants of zero-till seed-cum-fertilizer drill/planters have been developed for direct drilling of seeds even in the presence of surface residues. In order to generate benefits from CA, untapped area of rainfed regions needs to be explored and utilized for CA interventions for carbon sequestration and enhancing the productivity of those areas. Appropriate location-specific CA technologies need be developed for the dominant cropping systems in the rainfed regions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Somasundaram Jayaraman, N. K. Sinha, M. Mohanty, K. M. Hati & A. K. Patra

  2. ICAR -Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Kukma-Bhuj, Gujarat, India

    A. K. Naorem

  3. DDG, National Resouce Management, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, KAB-II, New Delhi, India

    S. K. Chaudhari

  4. Carbon Management Sequestration Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Rattan Lal

  5. School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Ram C. Dalal

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  1. Somasundaram Jayaraman
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  2. A. K. Naorem
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  3. N. K. Sinha
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  4. M. Mohanty
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  5. K. M. Hati
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  7. S. K. Chaudhari
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  8. Rattan Lal
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  9. Ram C. Dalal
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Soil Physics, ICAR-Indian Institute Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Somasundaram Jayaraman

  2. School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Ram C. Dalal

  3. ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Ashok K. Patra

  4. DDG, Natural Resource Management, Indian Council of Agriculture Research, KAB-II, New Delhi, India

    Suresh K. Chaudhari

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Jayaraman, S. et al. (2021). Conservation Agriculture: Issues, Prospects, and Challenges in Rainfed Regions of India. In: Jayaraman, S., Dalal, R.C., Patra, A.K., Chaudhari, S.K. (eds) Conservation Agriculture: A Sustainable Approach for Soil Health and Food Security . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0827-8_1

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