Opportune science and promotion boost climate-smart farming in India

Direct sowing of wheat seed into a recently-harvested rice field using the Happy Seeder implement, a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative to burning rice straw, in northern India.

With the pandemic lockdown driving millions of migrant workers and day laborers away from northern India to their home villages, prospects for the region’s rice-wheat cropping rotation, which feeds the nation and relies heavily on field workers, looked grim. But scientists of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and India seized a glimmer of promise for farmers and policymakers, amid the dark crisis.

“Any delay in the labor-intensive transplanting of rice seedlings pushes back rice harvests; this then causes wheat to be sown later and sorely affects wheat yields,” explained M.L. Jat, a systems agronomist who leads CIMMYT’s climate-smart agriculture research portfolio in South Asia. “Also, farmers normally gather and burn millions of tons of rice straw before sowing wheat, generating regionwide pollution. That’s always harmful but would be worse if burning were delayed until the cold weather of late fall or winter.”

For long, CIMMYT and national partners have studied and advocated for resource-conserving farming practices to help address perennial rice-wheat rotation problems, including severe water and soil depletion and falling profitability. Among alternatives are sowing rice in non-flooded fields, adding or substituting crops in the rotation, and planting wheat directly into just-harvested rice fields without burning the straw or plowing.

The latter is called “zero tillage” and has been adopted already on a limited area in northern India. The practice helps lessen severe seasonal air pollution, profits farmers by $150-200 in reduced costs and improved yields per hectare, saves an average 15% in irrigation water, and allows early wheat planting so that the crop can be harvested before the pre-monsoon heat scalds the grain, according to Harminder S. Sidhu, principal research engineer at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), a research center for which CIMMYT shares oversight with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

“Zero tillage for wheat requires use of a special tractor-mounted implement that opens grooves in the soil, drops in wheat seed and fertilizer, and covers the seeded row with shredded rice residues, all in one pass,” Sidhu explained. He and colleagues in India and CIMMYT developed and refined the implement, known as the Happy Seeder, over 15 years. Conventional wheat seeding practices involve first gathering and burning rice straw, followed by numerous and costly tractor passes to plow, harrow, and plank the field, reforming it from a paddy, and then to sow the wheat.

Unprecedented challenges require visionary measures

After a 2020 study by researchers at CIMMYT, ICAR and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) described the potentially disastrous outcomes of rice-transplanting delays, Jat and the other authors shared with policymakers their findings and recommendations, including the alternatives described above. Notably, after receiving a one-page summary, the Chief Minister of Punjab, the leading rice-wheat farming state, released a video address supporting the scientists’ conclusions.

Jat and colleagues then moved quickly to promote adoption of the alternative practices, helping to facilitate subsidies for purchases of the Happy Seeder and ensuring the timely availability of machines and other inputs.

As a result, in 2020 farmers substituted dry-seeded rice for flooded and manually-transplanted rice on 500,000 hectares, which represents 34% more area converted to the new practice than the cumulative total for the previous 10 years. Additionally, 330,000 hectares were sown to alternative crops, principally cotton, maize and legumes.

“The central and state governments in northwestern India, as well as extension agencies, are promoting no-burn alternatives that include direct seeding of wheat using the Happy Seeder, and there are state directives and fines to stop straw burning, especially in this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sidhu said.

Partners and funders

Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), governments of India and of the states of Haryana and Punjab, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), an Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), This work benefits from the partnerships and support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), iDE, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

© 2021 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.

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CREDITS

Editors-in-chief
Marcia MacNeil, Rodrigo Ordóñez
Project coordination
Leslie Domínguez, Emma Orchardson
Art directors
Alfonso Cortés, Nancy Valtierra
Layout and design
Nancy Valtierra
Web design
Ricardo López
Graphics and illustrations
Marcelo Ortiz, Eliot Sánchez, Nancy Valtierra
Writers and editors
Nima Chodon, Madeline Dahm, Leslie Domínguez, Alison Doody, Wasim Iftikar, G. Michael Listman, Marcia MacNeil, Steven McCutcheon, Marta Millere, Emma Orchardson
Contributors
T.S. Amjath Babu, Frederic Baudron, Hans Braun, Shiela Chikulo, Olaf Erenstein, Velu Govindan, M.L. Jat, Timothy Krupnik, Sylvanus Odjo, B.M. Prasanna, Harminder S. Sidhu, Jelle Van Loon
Photography
Francisco Alarcón, Alfonso Cortés, Wasim Iftikar, Peter Lowe, Ranak Martin, S. Mojumder/Drik, Matthew O'Leary, Love Kumar Singh/BISA, F. Sipalla, Dhruba Thapa/NARC, Szefei Wong/Dreamstime, CIMMYT Archives
Video
Silvia Rico
ISSN
0188-9214
Correct citation
CIMMYT. 2021. Resilience. Renewal. Transition. CIMMYT Annual Report 2020. CDMX, Mexico: CIMMYT.
AGROVOC descriptors:
Maize; Wheat; Plant breeding; Genetic resources; Innovation adoption; Plant biotechnology; Seed production; Food security; Sustainability; Research policies; Economic analysis; Cropping systems; Agricultural research; Organization of research; Developing countries. Additional Keywords: CIMMYT. AGRIS category codes: A50 Agricultural Research; A01 Agriculture– General Aspects. Dewey decimal classification: 630

© International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), 2021. All rights reserved. The designations employed in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or its contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. CIMMYT encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested.

ACRONYMS

ADB
Asian Development Bank
AGG
Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat
ACIAR
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
BBS
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
BIOFOCS
Bioactive food components
BISA
Borlaug Institute in South Asia
CCAFS
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security
CIAT
International Center for Tropical Agriculture
CIMMYT
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
CMGRL
CIMMYT Maize Genetic Resource Lines
C02e
Carbon dioxide equivalent
CSISA
Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia
CtEH
Crops to End Hunger
EIAR
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research
EiB
CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform
EMT
Executive Management Team
EU
European Union
FAO
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
FACASI
Farm Power and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification
FCDO
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom
FHB
Fusarium head blight
IAAA
Innovative Applications in Analytics Award
ICAR
Indian Council of Agricultural Research
ICARDA
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
IFPRI
International Food Policy Research Institute
IIASA
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
IITA
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
IRD
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
IRRI
International Rice Research Institute
ITDA
Integrated Tribal Development Agency
JAAS
Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences
KALRO
Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization
KPI
Key performance indicators
MAIZE
CGIAR Research Program on Maize
N20
Nitrous oxide
NARC
Nepal Agricultural Research Council
NARS
National Agricultural Research Systems
ORMAS
Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society
PAU
Punjab Agricultural University
PROGRESS
Program for Growth and Resilience
SADER
Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural)
SDGs
Sustainable Development Goals
SeeD
Seeds of Discovery
STMA
Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa
ZBRF
Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund
UN
United Nations
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
USAID
United States Agency for International Development
WFP
United Nations World Food Programme
WHEAT 
CGIAR Research Program on Wheat
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Unless otherwise indicated, all amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars

Sustainable Development Goals

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About CIMMYT

CIMMYT – the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center – is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.

For more information, visit www.cimmyt.org.