Managing climatic risks in rice–wheat cropping system for enhanced productivity in middle Gangetic plains of India
Authors: Jha Ratnesh Kumar , Sattar Abdus , Singh Anil Kumar , Kundu Madhu Sudan , Tiwari Ravindra Kumar , Singh Abhay Kumar , Singh Arbind Kumar , Das Sudhir , Pal Ram , Kushwah Sunita , Kumari Anuradha Ranjan , Meena Motilal , Singh Pushpa , Gupta Santosh Kumar , Shekhar Divyanshu , Rai Sanjay Kumar , Kumar Gangwar Shishir , Rai Ram Krishna , Prasad Ram Ishwar , Singh Abhishek Pratap , Singh Rajendra Pratap , Singh Prabhat Kumar , Srivastawa Pawan Kumar , Jha Bipul Kumar , Senapati Rupashree , Das Sudeshna , Suman Sandeep Kumar , Singh Gulab , Rajak Shailendra Kumar , Kumari Nidhi , Rai Ashish , Kumar Sarvesh , Kashyap Vinita , Kumari Sunita , Chhetri Krishna Bahadur , Kumar Tarun , Prasad Sachchidanand , Gangwar Anshu , Nalia Arpita , Patra Abhik , Singh Rajneesh , Ramulu Chelpuri , Praharaj Shubhashisa , Regar Kanhaiya Lal , Patel Saurabh Shankar , Kumari Vandana , Chauhan Leela , Harsh B. R. , Kapil Shirsat Tejaswini , Soren Jogendra , Choudhury Sourav , Tamta Sushma , Kumar Naveen , Tiwari Dhiru Kumar 
Published: December 2023

Rice followed by wheat is the dominant cropping system in the middle Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP). Lower productivity (4.8 t ha−1) of this cropping system in Bihar, compared to the national average (6.8 t ha−1) due to several climate- and production-related issues, is a matter of concern for the farmers and the policymakers. Keeping all these in view, an experiment with rice–wheat cropping system was carried out during 2020–21 and 2021–22 in 17 adopted villages of 13 districts of Bihar under the Project “Climate Resilient Agriculture Program (CRAP)” to evaluate the feasibility of early transplanting of rice in the month of June with the aim of achieving higher system productivity by early harvesting of rice and subsequent timely sowing of wheat before 15 November with the provision of assured irrigation. In this study, the concept of an innovative community irrigation approach and single-phase 3-hp submersible pump was employed. Long-duration rice variety (150 days) Rajendra Mahsuri-1 was sown during 20–25 May in the nursery and transplanted through puddling operation during 15–20 June in 17 locations. Under delayed conditions, the nursery sowing and transplanting window were 10–15 June and 10–15 July, respectively. Timely sown rice grown with the provision of a community irrigation system achieved a grain yield of 5.2 t ha−1 and 85.8% higher water productivity, compared to late-sown crops. Following the harvest of rice, the HD-2967 variety of wheat was planted in the first fortnight of November and harvested in the first week of April, yielding 4.9 t ha−1 with the application of 2–3 irrigations based on soil type and evaporative demand. Timely harvesting of wheat facilitated farmers of the region to take an additional crop of summer green gram. With an assured irrigation system and shifting planting dates and thereby managing climatic risks, the overall productivity of the rice–wheat cropping system was achieved to the tune of 10.1 t ha−1 with a cropping intensity of 300% for better adaptation and sustainable production.