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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Soil is a key compartment for climate regulation as a source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and as a sink of carbon. Thus, soil carbon sequestration strategies should be considered alongside reduction strategies for other greenhouse gas emissions. Practicing conservation tillage, residue retention and diverse organic and inorganic fertilizer management options were advocated because of their multiple benefits. Hence we explored the energy requirement and carbon footprint of conservation agriculture (CA) based maize production systems. ZT and PB plots consumed lower energy in land preparation (49.7-51.5%) and irrigation (16.8-22.9%) compared to CT. Significantly higher system output (10.6-14.5%) and net energy (14.8-18.9%) returns, biomass productivity (9.9-14.1%), energy use-efficiency (13.4-17.1%), and bio-energetic based adult equivalent yield (17.3-19.8%) was recorded in ZT and PB than the CT. Among the crop rotation plots the pooled net energy-output (35, 3346 MJ ha⻹), biomass yield (11.87 Mg ha⻹), energy use efficiency (4.16), and bio-energetic based adult equivalent yield (46 adults ha⻹ year⻹) was recorded significantly higher in MWMb plots. The carbon footprint for durum wheat grown after a pulse was 0.25 kg CO2e per kg of the grain and 0.28 kg CO2e per kg of the grain when grown after an oilseed: a reduction in the carbon footprint of 24% to 32% than when grown after a cereal. The application of chemical fertilizer + FYM at 6 t/ha to rice-wheat system produced significantly higher yield attributes, economic yield , energy output of the system and higher carbon efficiency CE and net return over control and sole application of FYM at 6 t/ha. The application of INM with ridge furrow sowing increased available N and P contents in the soil. The adoption of NT-RR significantly reduced the energy use (16,727 MJ/ha) compared with those under CT-RI (27,630MJ/ha. Thus, NT-RR also increased the energy use efficiency (EUE), energy productivity (EP), and reduced carbon footprint (CF) of the system compared with those under CT-RI. Use of different mulches also increased the energy use efficiency and system productivity compared with those under NM. The total CO2-e emission (CF) was higher under CT-RI (2307 kg CO2-e/ha) as compared to those under NT-RR (2013 kg CO2-e/ha). The savings of fossil fuel from less number of tillage operations and also low emissions associated with energy consumed in manufacture, transport, repair and use of machines contributed to the lowest GWP under NT-RR. Thus, the study supports and recommended that the NT-RR with BM is an environmentally safe and clean production technology for enhancing the energy use efficiency, reducing the CF and cost of production of direct-seeded upland rice based cropping system in India and similar agro-eco-regions elsewhere in the rice based cropping system in the world.