Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Field Crops Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fcr Increasing farmer’s income and water use efficiency as affected by long-term fertilization under a rainfed and supplementary irrigation in a soybean- wheat cropping system of Indian mid-Himalaya Suresh Chandra Panday, Mahipal Choudhary, Sher Singh, Vijay Singh Meena ⁎ , Dibakar Mahanta, Ram Prakash Yadav, Arunava Pattanayak, Jaideep Kumar Bisht ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan (VPKAS), Almora, 263601, Uttarakhand, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: FYM Net returns Rainfed Supplementary irrigation Water use efficiency (WUE) Water expense efficiency (WEE) ABSTRACT Water and nutrient management are major corners in the improvement of productivity and sustainability of rainfed soybean-wheat cropping systems (SWCS). A nine-year-old (2006–2014–15) field experiment was started to explore the effects of recommended dose of farm yard manure (FYM) in SWCS, recommended dose of ni- trogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers (RDF) along with FYM, FYM + 50% NPK, NPK, FYM soybean + NPK wheat and without application of NPK and FYM (CK) under rainfed (I 0 ) and supplementary irrigation (I 1 ) situation in SWCS. Results from nine years continuous fertilization of NPK + FYM showed sig- nificantly highest grain yield of wheat (2.70 and 3.80 t ha -1 ) and soybean (2.50 and 2.74 t ha -1 ) under rainfed (I 0 ) and supplementary irrigation (I 1 ), respectively as compared to rest of treatments. Significant (p < 0.05) correlation (R 2 = 0.50) was observed between seasonal rainfall and wheat grain yield. However, SWCS yield was also significantly (p < 0.05) higher with fertilization of NPK + FYM plots under both rainfed (I 0 ) and supple- mentary irrigation (I 1 ) situation. The mean water use efficiency (WUE) of wheat (9.70 and 9.60 kg ha -1 mm -1 ) was significantly higher as compared soybean (3.8 and 4.3 kg ha -1 mm -1 ) under rainfed (I 0 ) and supplementary irrigation (I 1 ), respectively. Meanwhile, in respective of treatments WUE of wheat (15 and 14 kg ha -1 mm -1 ) and soybean (5.7 and 6.2 kg ha -1 mm -1 ) were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in NPK + FYM plots under rainfed (I 0 ) and supplementary irrigation (I 1 ), respectively. Results showed that grain yield, irrigation and fer- tilizer interaction was significant (p < 0.05) positive for wheat, whereas it was non-significant for soybean. The net returns were significantly higher with fertilization of NPK + FYM under rainfed (I 0 ) and supplementary irrigation (I 1 ) in SWCS. Economic efficiency (EE) and production efficiency (PE) was also significantly (p < 0.05) higher with NPK + FYM fertilization in SWCS. Thus, we conclude that in the long-term fertilization (NPK + FYM) in SWCS under rainfed and supplementary irrigation situation, respectively is sustainable option for higher economic as well as production efficiency. 1. Introduction Rainfed agriculture covers ∼80% of the world’s cultivated land, and contributes ∼60% to the total crop production (UNESCO, 2009). Irri- gation and fertilization are the two important inputs in obtaining high grain yields and sustainability around the world (Bernacchi and VanLoocke, 2015; Liang et al., 2016; Sharma et al., 2017). The moun- tains are considered as water towers of earth, but they face acute shortage of water not only during lean period but also in rainy season. Soil moisture conservation is a critical issue in rainfed farming in sub- temperate regions of the Indian Himalayas (Bhattacharyya et al., 2010). The syndrome of water surplus and deficit also exist in Indian mid- Himalayas. In kharif season there is high intensity surplus rainfall causing intensive erosion, reduces both the soil organic carbon (SOC) content and plant nutrients while deficit causes drought during wheat are main feature of Indian mid-Himalayas agriculture. The agriculture is a main occupation of ¾ populations of Indian Himalayas and ∼90% area under rainfed agriculture. The higher mountains have very meager sources of water (water springs) which are mostly used for drinking purpose and there is no source for agricultural use. The irrigation water is inadequate in valley and farmers get rivers water diverted through small canals known as gulls. The fertilizer supply in hills is also limited and transportation of fertilizers from plains is very costly. The rainfed agriculture system of Indian mid-Himalaya has yields of https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2018.02.004 Received 12 July 2017; Received in revised form 3 January 2018; Accepted 6 February 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: vijayssac.bhu@gmail.com, vijay.meena@icar.gov.in (V.S. Meena). Field Crops Research 219 (2018) 214–221 0378-4290/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T