Elsevier

Agricultural Water Management

Volume 128, October 2013, Pages 92-101
Agricultural Water Management

Grain yield and water use efficiency of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in relation to irrigation levels and rice straw mulching in North West India

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2013.06.011Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Wheat yield and water use increased with increase in irrigations.

  • Rice straw mulching decreased surface soil temperature and weed dry matter.

  • Mulching increased the water use efficiency, yield attributes and yield in wheat.

  • Highest water use efficiency recorded with 2 irrigations applied with 6 t ha−1 mulch.

  • Mulching decreased soil bulk density and increased organic carbon in surface soil.

Abstract

Continuous cultivation with a rice (Oryza sativa L.)–wheat cropping system in north-western India has led to an irrigation water crisis due to excessive withdrawal of underground water. Large scale on-farm burning of surplus rice residue by the farmers has also caused intense air pollution. Retaining rice residue as surface mulch as an alternative to burning could be useful for soil moisture conservation, reducing air pollution and improving soil organic matter level. A field experiment was conducted for three years (2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11) to study the effect of four irrigation treatments with irrigations applied at critical growth stages and four rates of rice straw mulching on the grain yield and water use efficiency of wheat in North-west India. The irrigation treatments were irrigations at crown root initiation (CRI) and boot stage (I2); CRI, tillering, and boot stage (I3); irrigations at CRI, tillering, boot stage, and milk stage (I4); and irrigations as CRI, tillering, jointing, boot stage, and milk stage (I5). Mulch application included no mulch (M0) and 2 (M2), 4 (M4), and 6 (M6) t ha−1. Significant irrigation × mulch interaction effects were observed on grain yield during 2008–09. Rice straw mulching decreased the maximum soil temperature by 2.0–3.3 °C recorded during the emergence of the wheat crop in different years. Mulching at different rates reduced the mean weed dry matter by 12.5–52.7% compared with the no mulch treatment, and increased growth and yield attributes of wheat crop in different years. Protein content decreased from 12.15–13.04% in the I2 treatment to 11.95–12.58% in the I5 treatment. Straw mulch at M6 decreased the water use from 2.1 to 2.9 cm compared with the no mulch treatment in different years. Water use efficiency decreased with the increasing irrigation level but increased with mulching. WUE increased as mulching increased for the I2, I3, and I4 treatments, but not for the I5 treatment. The increase in water use efficiency with the I5 treatment compared to no mulch was observed at the M2 treatment only and no further increase occurred thereafter. After three years of experimentation straw mulching decreased soil bulk density and increased organic carbon content in the 0–15 cm soil layer. It may be concluded from this study that under limited irrigation water conditions, rice straw mulching will be beneficial in increasing yield, soil organic carbon and water use efficiency in wheat.

Introduction

Wheat is the world's most widely cultivated food crop due to its wider adaptability to different climatic and edaphic conditions. In India, wheat is the main cereal crop and occupies the second position, in respect of area and production, next to rice. During 2010–11, total production of wheat in India was 85.9 million tonnes (t) from an area of 29.2 million hectares (Anonymous, 2011). Water is an important input for realizing high wheat productivity, however, it is becoming the most limiting factor for crop production in most of the north western parts of India where rice–wheat (RW) is the major cropping system (Hira, 2009). In India, RW systems account for >80% of the total cereal production and about 50% of the total calorie intake. More than 90% area of the RW area is irrigated and is facing yield stagnation, soil degradation, declining ground water table (Hira, 2009), and air pollution (Bijay-Singh et al., 2008). Therefore, it is essential to improve irrigation water productivity and decrease irrigation demand while maintaining the crop productivity. A greater number of irrigations has resulted in higher yields (18–40%) due to increase in number of productive tillers (15–20%) and in photosynthates accumulation by more than 60.2% compared with two irrigations at CRI stage and late tillering stages (Kumar et al., 1995, Pal et al., 2000). Pandey et al. (1997) reported a marked increase in leaf area index, crop growth rate and above ground biomass of wheat with increasing amount of irrigation water applied. They further reported that in a water scarce area, critical crop growth stage approach for scheduling of irrigation was found to be best. Shivani et al. (2003) reported that wheat receiving four irrigations at CRI, maximum tillering, boot stage and milk stage resulted in 13.7 and 29.0% higher grain yield over two (at CRI and boot stages) and three irrigations (at CRI, boot and milk stages), respectively. Irrigations are recommended at times corresponding to the specific growth stages (crown root initiation, early tillering, late jointing/boot, heading/flowering) of the wheat (Mishra et al., 2005). Depending upon the soil type, four to five irrigations are generally required to get optimum grain yield of wheat under normal climatic conditions of North West India. Coventry et al. (2011) reported that wheat grain yield increased in a step-wise manner as additional irrigation was applied but the highest protein content was achieved only with the fewest number of irrigations.

Intensive irrigated RW systems in South Asia are generating large quantities of crop residues as a result of increased crop production. Because of limited time interval between rice and wheat crops and no alternate uses of rice straw, farmers often burn the residue in the open field. For example, about 16 million tonnes of rice straw is currently burnt each year in Indian Punjab alone in the month of October which causes severe air pollution (Yadvinder-Singh et al., 2008). Furthermore, incorporation of rice straw delays wheat sowing, which causes low yields. Burning crop residues also destroys organic matter and results in large nutrient losses, particularly, N, P and S (Yadvinder-Singh et al., 2008). Thus technologies that enable retention of rice residues would greatly reduce air pollution and improve soil fertility. Mulching is an important agronomic practice to check moisture loss from soil surface. Sharma et al. (2010) in the northwestern Himalayan regions of India observed that mulching is useful for conserving soil moisture, resulting in increased productivity and improved soil conditions for the maize (Zea mays L.)–wheat cropping system. Recently, a new machine called Happy Seeder has been developed, which cuts the rice straw in front of the sowing lines and spreads it uniformly over the sown area (Sidhu et al., 2007). Zhang and Oweis (1999) reported that straw mulching in winter wheat reduced soil evaporation by 40 mm and improved water use efficiency by over 10%. The retention of rice residue as a surface mulch could be beneficial for enhancing soil water status and moderating soil temperature thereby increasing root growth, plant canopy, wheat yield and water productivity (Li et al., 2004, Jiafu, 1996, Parmar and Sharma, 1998, Balwinder-Singh et al., 2011, Chakraborty et al., 2010 and Rahman et al., 2005). Langdale et al. (1992) reported that use of straw mulch reduces water loss and soil temperature of surface soil but increases soil organic content. The quantity of mulching may have differential effects on water use and water use efficiency. Few studies have examined the combined effects of irrigation and straw mulch on grain yield and water use efficiency under irrigated conditions. The practice is required to conserve underground water which is depleting at an alarming rate in study area. The present investigation was therefore, carried out with the objectives to study the interactive effect of variable irrigation levels and rice straw mulch on growth, productivity and water use efficiency of wheat in RW system in North West India.

Section snippets

Experimental site

The field experiment was conducted at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana situated at 38°56′ N latitude and 75°52′ E longitude at a height of 247 m above mean sea level during winter seasons of 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11. The climate of this area is characterized as sub-tropical and semi-arid with hot and dry summer from April to June, hot and humid from July to September and cold winter from November to January. The average annual rainfall is about 500–750 mm, most of which is

Emergence count

Emergence count was reduced with the increase in mulch levels due to mechanical resistance provided by straw mulch to the emerging seedlings (Fig. 2). Compared with the M0 treatment, emergence reduction under the M4 and the M6 treatments was 7.6–12.2% and 11.4–16.2%, respectively, and both M4 and the M6 treatments were similar to each other. The emergence count of about 160–190 plants m−2 was found to be optimum for getting good wheat yields (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2011), however, it is

Conclusions

Wheat yield increased with increase in level of irrigation with the highest grain yield recorded with the I5 treatment in the absence of straw mulch. Straw mulching decreased soil temperature and reduced the weed dry matter, increased yield attributes and yield in wheat. While total water use increased with increase in irrigation levels, mulching decreased the total water use in wheat. Highest water use efficiency was recorded with two irrigations applied to wheat under 6 t ha−1of rice straw

Acknowledgement

We are very thankful to All India Coordinated Improvement Project on Wheat and Barley of ICAR, New Delhi, India for providing funds to conduct this experiment.

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