Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(2): 1591-1609 1591 Review Article http://dx.doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.602.178 Crop Residue Management and Soil Health with Changing Climate in Smallholders Farming: A Subtropical Indian Perspective R.K. Naresh 1 , R.K. Gupta 2 , R.S. Rathore 3 , Ashish Dwivedi 1* , H. L. Singh 4 , Vineet Kumar 5 , Arvind K. Shukla 6 , Vineet Singh 1 , S.P. Singh 5 , Saurabh Tyagi 1 , Vikrant Singh 1 , Vineet Kumar 1 , Onkar Singh 5 and Nihal Chandra Mahajan 1 1 Department of Agronomy; 4 Department of Horticulture; 3 Department of Soil Science Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut-250110, U.P., India 2 Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), New Delhi 110 012, India 3 Uttar Pradesh Council of Agricultural Research, Lucknow, India 4 Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tepla (Ambala)- Haryana, India 6 Indian Institute of Soil Science Nabibagh, Berasia Road, Bhopal – 462 038, India *Corresponding author: ABSTRACT Introduction India is an agrarian country and generates a large quantity of agricultural wastes. This amount will increase in future as with growing population there is a need to increase International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 2 (2017) pp. 1591-1609 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Keywords Crop residue; soil health; greenhouse gases; conservation agriculture. Accepted: 24 January 2017 Available Online: 10 February 2017 Article Info There are 115 million operational holdings in the country and about 80 % are marginal and small farmers. To fulfill the basic needs of house hold including food, feed, fodder, fiber, etc. warrant an attention about bio intensive cropping system (BICS).Global warming and its consequences are amongst the most serious problems of the present century. Agricultural crop residue burning contribute towards the emission of greenhouse gases (CO 2 , N 2 O, CH 4 ), air pollutants (CO, NH 3 , NO x , SO 2 , NMHC, volatile organic compounds), particulates matter and smoke thereby posing threat to human health. Total amount of residue generated in 2008–09 was 620 Mt out of which ~15.9% residue was burnt on farm. Rice straw contributed 40% of the total residue burnt followed by wheat straw (22%) and sugarcane trash (20%).Conservation agriculture and recommended management practices (RMPs) collectively are helpful to offset part of the emissions due to unscientific agricultural practices. An intensive agricultural practice during the post- green revolution era without caring for the environment has supposedly played a major role towards enhancement of the greenhouse gases. Due to increase in demand for food production the farmers have started growing more than one crop a year through repeated tillage operations using conventional agricultural practices. The feasibility of conservation agriculture for recuperating degraded soils and increasing crop yields of the smallholder farming systems in the subtropics is discussed. It is clear that the biggest obstacle to improving soils and other ecosystems through conservation agriculture in these situations is the lack of residues produced and the competition for alternate, higher value use of residues. This limitation, as well as others, point to a phased approach to promoting conservation agriculture in these regions and careful consideration of the feasibility of conservation agriculture in different agro-ecological conditions.