© 2004 "New directions for a diverse planet". Proceedings of the 4th International Crop Science Congress, 26 Sep – 1 Oct 2004, Brisbane, Australia. Published on CDROM. Web site www.cropscience.org.au 1 Evolution and Acceleration of No-till Farming in Rice-Wheat Cropping System of the Indo-Gangetic Plains Ram K. Malik 1 , Ashok Yadav 1 , Gurjeet S. Gill 2 , Parveen Sardana 1 , Raj Kumar Gupta 3 and Colin Piggin 4 1 CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India Email kanwarhsr@sancharnet.in 2 The University of Adelaide, Australia Email gurjeet.gill@adelaide.edu.au 3 Rice-Wheat Consortium, New Delhi, India Email r.gupta@cgiar.org 4 ACIAR, Canberra, Australia Email Piggin@aciar.gov.au Abstract The major challenge facing the rice-wheat cropping system in India is to sustain its long-term productivity. There are signs that the productivity and economic gains of this cropping system are consistently becoming smaller. For a populous country like India such a slow down amounts to food insecurity. One reason for the slow down in the growth of wheat productivity during the 1990s was the widespread development of herbicide resistance in Phalaris minor. Even though P. minor can now be effectively controlled with technologies introduced over the last 5 years, declining soil health has become an important constraint to the productivity of the region. The adoption of resource conservation technologies such as no-till is considered vital for maintaining the productivity of the rice–wheat system. Research undertaken in wheat has clearly shown the capacity of no-till to dramatically reduce production costs for the farmers while maintaining or sometimes increasing wheat yields. Farmer acceptance of no- till technology only became possible through a concerted farmer-participatory research program that was multidisciplinary in nature and had multi-institutional support. This effort has achieved a paradigm shift in tillage and has the makings of another green revolution to sustain the gains of the first green revolution. The introduction of no-till and other resource conservation technologies into the rice phase of the rice– wheat system has the potential to further increase the long-term profitability on Indian farms. This paper reviews no-till development and its impact on weed management, soil properties and farmer profitability in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Media Summary No-till technology developed through a collaborative program between the National Agricultural Research System (NARS-NATP), ACIAR, CIMMYT and the Rice-Wheat Consortium will provide long- term sustainability and profitability in the rice-wheat cropping system in India. Key Words Herbicide Resistance, no-till, Bed Planting, Rice-Wheat systems, Phalaris minor Introduction Since the 1960s, there has been a substantial increase in the area sown to rice–wheat (R-W) in South and East Asia, made possible by the development of short-duration cultivars of both species and the expansion of irrigation. Most of the area under this cropping system is located within subtropical to warm-temperate climates, characterised by cool, dry winters, and warm, wet summers. R-W systems extend across the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) into the Himalayan foothills, spanning a vast area from Pakistan’s Swat Valley in the north to India’s Maharashtra State in the south, and from the mountainous Hindu Kush of Afghanistan in the west to the Brahamputra floodplains of Bangladesh in the east. The IGP is composed of the Indus (areas in Pakistan, and parts of Punjab and Haryana in India) and the Gangetic Plains (UP, Bihar, and West Bengal in India, Nepal and Bangladesh). The Indus Plains component of the IGP has experienced increasing levels of farm mechanisation over the last 20 years. Cultivation for seed-bed preparation and harvesting in particular is now commonly undertaken with farm machinery. Even growers with small landholdings have access to local contractors who provide mechanised services for these operations. Wheat residue after grain harvest is valued highly for animal feed and therefore presents no difficulty in terms of management for it is largely removed. Rice residues, on the other hand, can be large and are generally not used for animal feed (except Basmati rice). Consequently, rice residues are usually burnt to enable tillage and seeding machinery to work