Enhancing Energetics, System Productivity, Profitability and Soil Fertility in Maize Based Cropping System by Conservation vis a vis Conventional Agriculture in North-West India

The rice-wheat system in South Asia is crucial for sustenance, food security, and livelihoods. However, challenges like malnutrition, declining productivity, and resource degradation persist. Exploring alternative cropping systems is essential to address these issues and promote sustainability. Consequently, a field experiment was conducted at the research farm of ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal, to evaluate the potential of maize-based conservation agriculture (CA) compared to conventional tillage (CT) in enhancing diversification, energetics, productivity, profitability, and sustainability in North-West India. The experimental field had sandy loam soil with a pH of 7.6, was non-saline (0.28 dS/m), and contained medium organic carbon (0.49%). The soil was low in available nitrogen (155 kg/ha), medium in available phosphorus (11.5 kg/ha), and potassium (188.7 kg/ha). Over four-year average, the grain yield of maize, wheat, pea, mustard, and green gram under CA-based management practices increased that of CT-based management practices by 6.5%, 3.3%, 24.7%, 12.3%, and 33.6%, respectively. Additionally, the wheat equivalent yield (WEY) of CA-based maize-wheat-green gram, maize-mustard-green gram, maize-pea-wheat, and maize-wheat systems exhibited improvements of 15.2%, 15.5%, 6.9%, and 9.9%, respectively, over their corresponding CT-based cropping systems. Notably, CA-based cropping systems led to a substantial increase of 6.9-15.5% in system productivity, 23.3-30.9% profitability and 10.9-21.8% organic carbon content as compared to their counterpart in conventional system. Maize-mustard-green gram (10.7) under CA showed 127.6% higher energy output: input ratio than non-basmati rice-wheat system (4.7). Maize-mustard-green gram system also assayed maximum organic carbon content (0.68%), which was 33.3% higher than non-basmati rice-wheat cropping system. Among the systems studied, the CA-based maize-wheat-green gram system emerged as the most efficient, achieving a remarkable 60.0% increase in system productivity, a substantial 129.1% improvement in economic profitability, and a 33.3% enhancement in organic carbon content (0.68%) compared to traditional farmers' practices, thereby offering a scalable alternative. Our research has demonstrated that cropping systems, such as maize-wheat-green gram, maize-mustard-green gram, and maize-pea-wheat, all implemented under conservation agriculture principles, have the potential to offer scalable alternatives to the traditional rice-wheat system. Therefore, introducing legumes and optimizing conservation agriculture practices in maize-based cropping systems preferably CA based maize-wheat-green gram presents viable alternatives to address the substantial challenges faced by farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India. These measures contribute to the long-term sustainability of the agricultural ecosystem in the region.