Trip Report - Meerut and Ghaziabad, U.P.

(7 April 2001)

Prepared by : Jagadish Timsina, University of Melbourne

Submitted to : Tony Fischer, ACIAR, Canberra

Cc: David Connor, Liz Humphreys, Peter Hobbs, Ken Sayre, Raj Gupta, JK Ladha, RL Yadav

1. Project Directorate of Cropping Systems Research (PDCSR), Modipuram, Meerut:

Meerut and Ghaziabad districts are located in Western UP, which is basically a sugarcane (ratoon)-wheat growing area, but now the RW system is emerging and expanding. The soils are sandy loam to silty loam, thus a bit heavier than those in Punjab. The soils at Modipuram are low in organic carbon (0.4-0.5%). The annual rainfall is 750 to 850 mm and water table depth is about 10-12 m. Groundwater tables are declining but not as rapidly as that in Central Punjab. Electricity is erratic and it is not free unlike in Punjab and Haryana. There is very high N use by farmers (~300 kg/ha for RW systems). About 60% of rice and wheat are harvested by combine, with rest manually. Punjab and Haryana farmers tell rice straw is not liked by animals, but in Nepal and Bangladesh, livestock prefer rice to wheat straw. In western UP, it is intermediate, with some farmers do feed rice straw to animals while others don't. It seems that preference of straw by livestock also is related to origin and dominance of rice and wheat in a particular area.

Visited Dr. R.L Yadav, Director of PDCSR and national coordinator of RW systems research, India, and his research group at Modipuram (~ 80 km northwest of Delhi and ~ 20 km northwest of Meerut). There are ~ 40 scientists and technicians located at Modipuram, and 20 Ph.D. level researchers were there during round-table meeting. Dr. RK Naresh, an old mate of mine at Pantnagar University, and now working on bed planting at Ghaziabad, was also present. The centre has mandate for all systems-related research in India, but ~ 70-80% research activities are concentrated on RW only. First they showed me their on-station field experiments, which were well-managed and were extremely impressive. I visited quickly the following experiments:

1. N management in zero-drill wheat under RW system.

2. Productivity and profitability of DSR (unpuddled)-wheat system as influenced by rice varieties, nutrient management and weed control measures

3. Effect of diversification through legume crops on productivity and soil health in RW cropping systems

4. Evaluation of component crop genotypes for RW cropping system

5. Mechanization of RW cropping systems for increasing productivity

6. Alternative efficient cropping systems to RW

7. Effect of N and irrigation on the growth of roots, NUE and productivity of RW cropping.

8. Long-term effect of residue cycling under different tillage management practices on soil health and crop yield in RW and sugarcane-wheat cropping system and modeling (DSSAT model; BS Dwivedi). BS Dwivedi was one of the trainees of DSSAT modeling course at IRRI in early 1997 given by U.Singh, IFDC and myself. Later, IFDC organised another training course at Modipuram, and PK Aggarwal also organised another course at IARI on models, based on Dutch approach. Dwivedi attended both of those courses. It seems that he is now confused to modeling and needs assistance and collaboration.

9. In-situ decomposition of machine-harvested rice straw thermal regime to improve sustainability of RW system

10. Effect of pre-decomposed rice straw on soil productivity and crop yield in RW system

11. Development of sustainable production model for RW system

12. Development of N management strategies for maximising productivity of pigeonpea-wheat and Rw cropping systems through simulation modeling (APSIM model; VK Singh, with collaborator from ICRISAT)

In addition to these, also visited 2 ha demonstration plot sown with wheat on beds. In fact, the bed planting (BP) experiment at PDCSR started in 1995-96, with an objective of including legumes in RW cropping systems. They planted rice on furrows and wheat and legumes (cowpea, soybean, pigeonpea) on beds, with 6 rows each of rice and wheat and 3 rows of legumes. The experiment is still continuing. The soil is somewhat heavier and it seems 'subbing' is not an issue, but they have formed beds manually which may become an issue for extrapolation.

According to Dr. Yadav, there are approximately 100,000 ha under zero tillage (ZT) and 400 ha under BP in India this year. Although areas under ZT and BP are increasing and certainly there is need of project such as proposed by ACIAR at PAU, Ludhiana, he believes that it should not over-exaggerated and resources must be allocated to improving the productivity and sustainability of existing systems, which is grown in more than 10 Mha in India. We agreed on that.

Discussed earlier with Raj Gupta, and now also with Yadav, about the possibility of small ACIAR project to improve the design of seed drill or bed planter to sow wheat on loose straw or residues. I have told Yadav to discuss with Raj, and help him identify an Engineer, preferably with a workshop in Meerut. There is a new university, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, sitting on the south side of the PDCSR complex in Meerut, and Yadav told me he would discuss with Raj and will him identify an Engineer. I told both Raj and Yadav that Tony Fischer will identify a suitable Engineer in Australia before planning and development of that project.

Yadav wanted some collaboration between ACIAR project and PDCSR. Discussions were thus held on how to complement activities between the two and how to best collaborate with ACIAR project. I showed the possibility of interaction between ACIAR project people at PAU and PDCSR by sharing experiences and knowledge through training and visits and travelling workshops organised by RWC. Yadav agreed to that. We also talked a bit about ADB project in Meerut, to be coordinated/led by IRRI. It has been proposed that it be a joint project between PDCSR and the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology (R.K. Naresh works with the university), and research be conducted on the stations. Naresh's on-farm experiments (discussed below) will be continued through RWC. It is not clear how exactly the ADB project will look like, but there will be project meetings at Ghaziabad on 17-18 April followed by ADB-IWMI site meeting at Karnal on 20-21 April. JK Ladha will attend both meetings, but Bas Bouman and Joe Rockman will be at Ghaziabad from 16 to 22 April to work out details of the project. Bas has given a copy of the experimental protocol on bed research on RW at Meerut to Liz Humphreys, and Liz has passed a copy to me. It is important that all groups working on beds and RW in the region interact with each other, share their experiences, and complement their activities with each other.

2. Dr. R.K. Naresh and his on-farm demonstrations/trials on ZT and BP in Ghaziabad:

About 80% of area at Ghaziabad is under fine-seeded rice variety, PB1 (Pusa Basmati), which yields 4.5-5.0 t/ha, with price of IRs 14000/t. The other popular bold-seeded varieties are Pant 4 and Pusa 44, which yield about 6-7 t/ha but market price is only about IRs 4500/t. Likewise, the popular wheat varieties in the area are PBW343 and UP 2425. Average yields of rice and wheat in Ghaziabad and Meerut are 4.5-5.0 and 3.7-4.0 t/ha, respectively. Pusa 44 was best on beds last year. This year, Naresh will plant 5 varieties (2 bold-seeded, one fine-seeded, and 2 hybrids) at 10 locations. IRRI has already sent 3 varieties (aerobic?), 2 of 1 kg each and one of 25 kg, but he doesn't remember the names of those varieties. Also, there will be fertilizer trials on beds, perhaps with treatments using leaf color chart and chlorophyll meter, and with site-specific nutrient management under the guidance of IRRI staff and Raj Gupta.

Naresh started planting wheat on beds and ZT in small area last year (1999-2000) but now he has several on-farm demonstration trials of wheat on beds as well as under ZT. He had about 7 or 8 demonstration trials of rice on beds last year, seems to be very confident in growing rice on beds, and is intending to increase area under rice on beds this year. Naresh showed to Tony Fischer some of the bed-planted wheat and vegetables in Ghaziabad on 21 March, 2001. I mostly followed the footsteps of Tony but also walked to a few more plots. I was accompanied by Naresh, Dr. Srivastava (also of Krishi Vigyan Kendra), and Dr. Dwivedi (PDCSR) during those walks.

Spot 1: Visited a site (silty loam soil) of 2 acres, where wheat was grown on one-year old bed planted to rice last year. Before wheat was sown by bed planter (2 rows per bed), rice straw was cut by sickles just above the soil surface (~ 10 cm) to simulate the situation where rice is harvested manually, followed by an irrigation to moisten the soil. Naresh said rice yielded about 4.8 t/ha on beds as against 5 t/ha on flats. Observed long and continuous cracks on the centre of the furrows but not on beds.

Visited a plot (5 acres) closed to the previous spot, where mungbean and maize, each on 1 acre, were sown on new beds, mungbean (1.5 acre) and maize (1 acre) with ZT on flats using zero-tilled seed drill, and maize (0.5 acre) broadcast on flats. Seeds of both crops had just started to emerge. The fields were pre-irrigated and the cropping pattern for that field was rice-potato-mungbean.

Visited another plot (1 acre) closed to those fields where muskmelon was grown on new beds. The muskmelons in the previous years were grown on flats, and Naresh observed damage to muskmelons on flats last year due to heavy rainfall.

Spot 2: Visited another spot (sandy loam soil) where wheat var. PBW 343 was sown on flat under ZT for the first time using zero-till seed drill. Rice straw was cut just above the soil surface (2 to 3 cm) and no residues were seen. A field adjoining this had wheat var. UP 2425 (sowing 13 Nov.) that followed okra (cropping pattern: okra-wheat), the latter with no residue retention problem. Also visited another plot (1.5 acre) where wheat was grown on new beds on soils previously conducted with a fertilizer trial of wheat on flat.

Spot 3: Visited another spot (sandy loam soil) of 1.5 acre, where okras and tomatoes were grown on beds using bed planter. Waterlogging is an issue in the rainy season, and farmers used to grow those crops on beds prepared manually each year. The site had severe soil salinity and sodicity problems about 30 years ago, and was reclaimed by gypsum later, but still had some salinity (no measurements done yet) problem. The bed planter facilitated planting of those crops.

Spot 4: Visited the fields of Pradeep Singh (sandy to silty loam soil), who owns 140 acres of land. As in the spot 3, his fields suffered from salinity previously, but were reclaimed later. Visited a plot (1.5 acre) where wheat was grown on one-year old bed grown to DSR prior to wheat. Rice received water every third or fourth day on the bed, each irrigation lasting for 2.5 to 3 hours, while on the flat, though the number of irrigations were few, the duration of each irrigation was much longer. Rice yielded about 5.5 t/ha on both beds and flat. As in spot 1, rice straw was cut about 10 cm above the soil surface, field was irrigated, weedicide was applied, and wheat seeds were sown. Soils seem to be harder and soil strength seems to have been increased on the bed surface as compared to those on the flat, and long and continuous soil cracks were observed on the centre furrows.

Visited another plot (1.5 acre) where wheat was grown on new bed.

Also visited a plot of 1 acre where wheat was sown with ZT and control traffic lanes were created by blocking outermost rows on either side of the Pantnagar zero-till seed drill. Tractors will be used on those traffic lanes for combine harvest, choppers will be used to chop the straw, residues will be spread over the field, and finally DSR will be drilled into the wheat stubble, still on the flat using the same tracks. Mulches will conserve the moisture and Naresh reckons germination will not be a problem. Similarly, there are 4 other sites (2 with 4 or 5 acres each) where traffic lanes are created this way.

Also visited bed-planted plot with paired rows (10 cm between 2 rows on bed and 30 cm between 2 outer rows in-between beds). Tony suggests we use 30,10cm system of geometry for such scheme of planting.

Pradeep says about 5 irrigations per acre are required for wheat planted on flat on his field, each irrigation lasting for approximately 5 hours (total 25 hours), while 8 irrigations per acre are required for bed-planted wheat, with 2 hours per irrigation (total 16 hours).

Spot 5: Visited another site (a bit heavier soil) of 5 acres with some (?) soil salinity problem grown to wheat var. Raj 3765 (for saline soil) on beds. There were clear salt encrustations on the bed surface, as was also observed in wheat after cotton (cotton-wheat systems) on beds in the previous week in Multan in Pakistan. Wheat yields on the neighbouring fields (flat) with salinity problems were approximately 1.5 t/ha but were about 3 t/ha on beds. I was convinced from my earlier observations in Multan, and now at this site, that raised beds could help alleviate salinity problems.

Spot 6: Visited another site of 6 acres where wheat was sown into a bit longer rice residues (~ 15-20 cm) to simulate planting after combine harvest. No weedicide was used prior to sowing of wheat. Also, visited a field close to this field, where maize (single row) was sown on beds on 4 acres on 27th March.

Spot 7: Visited another site of 5 acres on the Ghaziabad-Delhi roadside where half of the area was sown to wheat on beds with paired rows and half on ZT using controlled-traffic lanes as described earlier.

Conclusions:

Naresh's work on beds is quite impressive. I also learnt a lot from my visits to the Ghaziabad site during rice season last year and during wheat season this time. It was clear from Naresh's observations on plant populations and tiller count that there were high tiller numbers on beds and on ZT, but wheat on conventionally-sown flats had 30% less tillers. The conventionally-sown plots had also received 30% extra water (in terms of time) per watering, so it looks like waterlogging, as reflected by poorer tillering, and N losses could be a problem on flats. Certainly, this is an impressive piece of on-farm research on bed systems.

Acknowledgement:

My travel to India was funded by ACIAR. The trip to Ghaziabad/Meerut was part of the trip to India for the development of ACIAR project proposal on, "Permanent raised-bed culture for sustainable rice-wheat systems for IGP and Australia" with PAU, Ludhiana. The trip to Ghaziabad/Meerut was carried out after completing visit at PAU.