Dr. Ilias Hossain and

Dr. Akram H Chowdhury

8 January 2018

Increasing Crop Productivity while Reducing Greenhouse Gas

Emissions through Conservation Agriculture in Drought Prone

Barind Tract

WELCOME TO PRESENTATION ON

Background

Population is increasing @ 1.58% but

cultivable land is decreasing @ 0.78% per year

due to rapid urbanization(@12%) & others

Recent major concerns for agriculture

Temperature raising Erratic rainfall

Organic matter degradation

Ground water depletion3

The Earth

CO2

CH4

N2O

CFCs

Atmosphere

N2

O2H2

Radiation

Global

Warming

H2O

O3HCFCs

Greenhouse Gas Emission

Drought Prone Agriculture- Sustainability Issues

Declining and deterioration of natural resources

Over exploitation of ground water resources

Drought prone area (1.60 lac ha)

Labor shortage with high production cost

Fallow land utilization (0.70 lac ha)

Severe rat damage in wheat

Drought Prone Agriculture- Sustainability Issues

Soil degradation & soil health issues

Decrease in soil organic carbon

Soil moisture & water holding capacityare low due to intensive tillage anddrought

Environmental problems

Threats to stainable intensification in Barind region

• Shortages of labor

• Rising price of labor

• Declining water tables

• Climate change effect

• Uneven distribution of rainfall

• GHG emission and global warming

Ground

water table

increasing

in Tanore

upazila,

Rajshahi

16701503 1523

1271

y = -117.7x + 1786R² = 0.8488

0

500

1000

1500

2000

1974-83 1984-93 1994-03 2004-2012

Rainfall Status in HBT, Bangladesh

Figure. Average max. & min monthly temperature

Wheat blast

Create new problems for major crops

Negative consequences of puddling rice soils

Cracking of soils with loss of saturation

Soil structure degradation

Creates hard plough pans, decreases soil micro-flora

Loss of indigenous soil nutrients and break soil structure

Increase CFC gas and CO2 emission

De-nitrification losses of N before sowing

Decreased availability of soil P for dry season crops

Objectives/targets

• Increase sustainable crops productivity in Barind

region

• Resource saving-time, energy, money, soil, water etc

• Environment friendly and easy crop cultivation to

avoid pest & diseases and

• Minimize of greenhouse gas emission

Resource conservation - Strategies solution

Reduce GHG emissions – Holding Carbon is the need of the day ,

A= Absence/less tillage: No/less mechanical soil disturbance

B= Biodiversity: Diversify crop rotation to avoid pest & disease

C= Coverage of the soil : Permanent coverage with residues

13

•CSA aims to tackle three main objectives:- Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes;- Adapting and building resilience to climate change; &- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions,where possible

CA is a Climate Smart Agriculture

Conservation Agriculture (CA) as an opportunity

Save natural resources like

water, labor and time

fuel & energy

costs of production

Increase organic matter

Less CO2 emission

But how

70

223

36

105

361

4833 38 25

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Wheat Rice Mungbean

Cropping Pattern

Wate

r re

qu

ired

(L

/m2)

Beds Conv. % Save

Irrigation input & % save water in

rice-wheat-mungbean

Save 32% water from this pattern

Conservation Agricultureis a Win-Win Strategy!

Win #1 Win #2

Reduces GHG emissions, Fuel labor fertilizer saving

, Reduce carbon losses, nutrient load

Environment protection

Resource conservation, Improved input use efficiency

Improves nutrient cycling and crop

productivity

Operations Raised bed (Tk/33

dec)

Farmers practice(Tk/ 33 dec)

Land preparation 300 600

Sowing & lathering - 200

Seeds 560 700

Irrigation/hours 420 (3 times) 650 (3 times)

Total 1280 2150

Save= 870 Tk/ 33 decimal=6525 tk/ha, Save cost about 45 to 50%

Production cost reduced 50-60% due

to four works like ploughing seeding,

furrow making & laddering done by

one pass.

Reduce production cost

Labor requirement for land preparation and seeding/

transplanting (person-hr ha-1)

Tillage options Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Average

Conv. tillage 503 450 526 493

Strip tillage 376 316 409 367

28

50

26

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

CT SPWT/ZT BP ST

Tillage options

La

bo

ur s

av

ing

s,

%

Minimum tillage saved 26-50% labour in land preparation

Fuel requirement (l ha-1) in rice-maize cropping system

Tillage options Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Average

Conv. tillage 88 72 95 85

Strip tillage 27 27 39 31

62

42

64

0

20

40

60

80

100

CT SPWT/ZT BP ST

Tillage options

Fu

el

sa

vin

gs,

%

Minimum tillage saved 42-64% fuel in land preparation

Increased 10-15% total system productivity in

RWM when 30% SR from both rice & wheat

and full RR from mungbean with PRB system

over conventional practice

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Bed x 0%

Straw

Conv x 0%

Straw

Bed x 30%

Straw

Conv x30%

Straw

Tillage options x straw levels

To

tal

Syste

ms P

ro

du

cti

vit

y

(t/h

a)

Rice Wheat Mungbean

Total productivity under CA system in rice-wheat-mungbean

cropping pattern

Tillage

options

Diesel used

(lit./ha/year)

CO2 emission

(kg/ha/year)

Fuel save

(lit./ha/year)

Save CO2

(kg/ha/year)

RCTs 36 93.6 32 83.2

Farmers’

practice

68 176.8

44% fuel saving

47% CO2 saving

1 lit. diesel produce 2.6 kg CO2

Less CO2 emission into atmosphere

Comparative use of oil-fuel and CO2 emission on CA

system & FP

Reduced GWP by 13 to 37% under different CA practices

Fig. Global warming potential (GWP) in rice-wheat system

under different tillage options

Time taken, fuel used and CO2 emission from different

conservation and conventional tillage

Particulars Zero tillage

Strip tillage

PRB PTOS FP

Time taken, h ha-1 3 [73] 4[64] 4[64] 5[55] 11

Fuel used, l ha-1 12[72] 14[68] 18[59] 19[57] 44

Operational Energy MJ ha-1 687[73] 804[68] 1029[60

] 1089[57] 2542

CO2 Emission Approxkg C-ha-1

30[74] 40[65] 45[61] 50[57] 115

Strip tillage planting for Conservation Agriculture

• Seeding, ploughing and laddering

can be done in one pass

• Seeding through crop residue

• Residual soil moisture use

• Multicrop seeding (wheat, rice,

maize, pulses)

• Locally made

Benefits

Reduce tillage/seeding cost up to

60%

25-30% water saving

20 % seed can be saved

Ensure timely seeding

Reduce fuel cost

Working capacity: 1-1.5 bigha/hr

• Increase system yield

by 10-15% in grain crop,

30-35% in pulses, 10-

15% in fiber

• Reduce irrigation water

up to 40%

• 20% seed saved

• Improve soil fertility

• Reduced tillage and

seeding cost upto 75%

• Ensure timely seeding

and eco-friendly

Bed planting technology for CA

Advantages

Field view of PTOS

planted wheat in

Charghat, Rajshahi

PTOS in Operation

Working as tilling, seeding in line and seed covering in a single pass

Minimize turn aroundtime

Timely planting Simple operation Seed saved 20% Reduced production

cost

Power tiller Operated Seeder (PTOS)

Benefits of surface residue cover in CA

Increased water infiltration.

Decreased water evaporation

Increased water available to crops.

Less soil erosion from both water

and wind

More biological activity

More soil organic matter and

available nutrients

Moderated soil temperatures

Less weeds .

Unpuddled zero tillage boro rice production

Benefits:-Reduced total puddling cost

-Reduced 60% water in transplanting operation

-Enhanced maturity

-Increase system production

-Production cost reduced about 1500 Tk/bigha

Unpuddled Zero Tillage Rice Boro Transplanting in Bijojnagar, Godagari, Rajshahi

Grain yield of Boro Rice

UPZBR: 5.1-5.8 t/ha

Conventional : 5.0-5.8t/ha

Zero tillage unpuddled rice transplanting video

Characteristics Initial Final Difference

pH (1:2.5 in water) 8.1 7.8 - 0.3

Organic Matter (%) 0.94 1.72 + 0.78

Total N (%) 0.12 0.19 + 0.07

Exch. K (ml eq/100g soil) 0.26 0.48 + 0.22

Avail. P (mg / g soil) 24.5 52.5 + 38.0

Avail. S (mg / g soil) 25.6 38.9 + 13.3

Avail. Zn (mg /g soil) 0.84 6.13 + 5.29

Avail. B (mg / g soil) 0.19 0.37 + 0.18

Avail. Fe (mg /g soil) 76.4 69.5 - 6.9

Avail. Mn (mg /g soil) 22.9 19.7 - 3.2

Soil chemical properties after 12 years crop cycles

0.78% OM increased after twelve year crops cycle

Tillage

options

Bulk density (mgm-3)Infiltration rate

(cmh-1)

Total pore

space

(vol.%)0-10

cm

10-20

cm

20-30

cm

Bed 1.22 1.33 1.47 0.89 68-72

Conv 1.37 1.49 1.63 0.47 41-45

LSD(0.05) 0.037 0.025 0.034 0.075 0.072

Physical properties after 12 years crop cycles

30% SR+PRB30% SR+CTF

•Reduced BD 8.3%

•Increased

infiltration rate

47.2%

•Increase total pore

space 38.5%

•Blackish soil color

Vegetables & sesame on raised beds

Amaranth

Coriander

Radish

Success of CA based technology

Cabinet Secretary visit the CA wheat farmers fields

Video of Conservation Agriculture in Barind

• SAARC, BRRI, DAE, CIMMYT, FAO, ACIAR, KGF, NATA, CCDB and Cornell University

• Ken Sayre, Dr Akram H Chowdhary, Prof. Duxbury, Craig Meisner and Chris Johansen

• My Colleagues and

• All CA based adopted Farmers

Acknowledgement