Resource Conservation Technologies in Rice–Wheat Cropping system Imtiyaj Ahmad 1 *, S. K. Chongtham 1 , Y.V. Singh 2 , M.A. Ansari 3 and H. Singh 1 1* Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU, Varanasi- 221005 (U.P.) India. 2 Senior Scientist (Agronomy), Centre for Conservation and Utilization of Blue Green Algae, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012, India 3 ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Imphal- 795004, Manipur, India *Email of corresponding author: imtiari8@gmail.com Rice-wheat cropping system is the pre-dominant cropping system in India as both rice and wheat are main staple food for the people of the country. The continued adoption of exhaustive rice- wheat cropping system has resulted in declined factor productivity and thus poses a serious threat to sustainable food production. Concerns of stagnant productivity, increasing production costs, declining resource quality, receding water table and increasing environmental problems are the major drivers to search for alternative technologies that can address all these problems. This article focuses on various resource saving yet efficient technologies that can be adopted in rice- wheat system for improving and sustaining higher yields. Introduction Rice-wheat (RW) is the most important cropping system practised on 13.5 m ha area in South Asia, out of which 10.3 m ha is in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) of India. The rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) of India is vital for national food security contributing more than 70% of total cereal production in India (Singh and Kaur, 2012). A decline in land productivity of RWCS has been observed over the past few years due to continued cereal-cereal cropping system. Depleting soil organic carbon status, ground water, decreasing soil fertility and reduced factor productivity are other issues of concern (Prasad, 2005). These evidences indicate that RWCS has weakened the natural resource base and its sustainability. To achieve sustainable higher productivity, efforts must be focused on reversing the trend in natural resource degradation by adopting resource conservation technologies (RCTs) in RCWS. RCTs are the practices, when followed results in saving of energy, cost and also reduces the environmental pollution over the conventional practices. Zero tillage (ZT) is a widely used RCT in Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), in which wheat is directly seeded in to the undisturbed soil after rice harvesting. ZT generally saves irrigation water in the range of 20–35% in the wheat crop compared to conventional tillage (CT). Adoption of furrow-irrigated raised-bed system (FIRBS) of wheat saves 25-30% seed, 30-40% water and 25% nutrients without affecting the yield (Jat et al., 2012) Brown manuring is highly beneficial for soil and water conservation, weed control and nutrient supplementation. Alternative wetting and drying (AWD) in rice reduces seepage, deep drainage losses and save water Popular Kheti ISSN:2321-0001 44 Popular Kheti Volume -1, Issue-3 (July-September), 2013 Available online at www.popularkheti.info © 2013 popularkheti.info ISSN:2321-0001