Performance of permanent raised bed planting in rice-wheat system ...

Performance of permanent raised bed planting in rice-wheat system in
Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India
Singh UP 1 , Singh Y 1 , Singh HP 1 , Gupta RK 2
1 Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural sciences, Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi-221005, India; udaipratap.singh1@gmail.com
2 CIMYYT-India, NASC Complex, New Delhi-110012, India
Keywords: Tillage and crop establishment, permanent furrow irrigated raised bed planting,
rice-wheat system
Introduction
The rice-wheat system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) is important for food security,
employment, and livelihoods for millions of rural and urban poor in the region. Recently,
evidences suggest that sustainability of RW system is at risk as the productivity of the
system is static for past several years and total factor productivity is declining because due to
fatigued natural resource base, changing climate, increasing water scarcity, labor shortage,
escalating fuel prices, and adverse effects of puddling on soil health. The system, therefore,
needs infusion of new technologies to increase productivity, income, and sustainability. In
recent years, the major emphasis in RW system has been on practicing conservation
agriculture to reduce the production costs energy consumption, sustain productivity, and
increase the profit margin of the farmers (Gupta et al., 2002.). In raised bed planting systems,
crops are grown on the raised beds and irrigated by furrows.. Dimensions of furrows and
raised beds are best dictated by the tractor width and type size. It is best to use narrow tyres
for crop planting in raised bed systems to avoid compaction of raised beds with wide tyres.
This system can also be used to plant intercrops in different configurations. Raised bed
planting system promotes crop intensification and diversification besides saving irrigation
water. In raised bed system, saves 30-40% water as compared to conventional flood irrigation
practice (RWC, 2002, Mann and Meisner, 2003). Benefits of Raised bed system also include
(i) fewer weeds, (ii) facilitates seeding into relatively dry soils (iii) vigorous and better crop
stands, (iv) savings of costly seed (v) reduced crop-lodging and seed and fertilizer contact
(vi) better drainage, improved rainwater conservation; and crop productivity and (vii)
minimizes wilt infestation in crops like pigeon pea and avoids temporary water logging
problems.. The raised bed planting system is gradually becoming popular amongst the R-W
farmers as it allows light and frequent watering, needed to address terminal heat stresses due
to climate change. The performance of raised bed system further improves when the system
is coupled with precision laser land leveling.
Materials and Methods
A farmer participatory experiment in village Pindahara, distt. Ballia in eastern U.P. was
conducted for six years (2002- 2008) to evaluate the performance of permanent raised bed
planting system in terms of water and fertilizer use efficiencies, profitability, and
opportunities for intensification and diversification of rice-wheat cropping system. The raised
bed planting system was compared with the conventional tilled planting practice. The bed
planting system was initiated with freshly prepared raised beds used to transplant young rice
seedlings during the monsoon season. Winter and summer season crops (wheat and
mungbean etc.) were planted on the beds used for rice after reshaping. Rice was established
either by transplanting of 30 -35 days old young seedlings or by direct dry seeding as per
farmer’s preference. Wheat and other crops were established by direct seeding on the beds

eshaped only once in the dry (winter/Rabi) season. During the wet season (Kharif) rice was
established without tillage, except in 2005-06 when pigeon pea (PP) replaced rice and the
crop was established by reshaping of beds. It may also be mentioned that the all crops were
established in presence of residues of the previous season crops in permanent bed system in
all the seasons during the six years. On the same beds 3-direct seeded rice, 2- transplanted
rice 1- summer mungbean, 1- pigeon pea and six crops of wheat were grown in the six year
period.
Results and Discussion
Results showed that permanent bed planting system increased the rice yield by 33 % and 60%
in wheat along with reduction in the cultivation cost by 26 % for rice and 24 % for wheat.
Compared with conventional farmer’s practice, permanent raised bed system improved water
and fertilizer use efficiency by 20-25 percent and reduced the total production cost of RW
system by nearly 30 percent (table1). The average yield of rice and wheat was 3.94 Mg ha -1
and 4.82 Mg ha -1 in permanent bed planting as compared to 2.97 Mg ha -1 and 3.02 Mg ha -1
with farmer’s practice. Compared with the conventional till system the net returns from R-W
system were up by US$ 206 and 249 ha -1 in permanent bed planting system. This system also
saves an expenditure of US$ 174 ha -1 of total cost. It was observed that net return of the
farmers can be significantly enhanced through substitution of rice with less water requiring
extra short duration pigeon pea and also by changing the rice establishment method (from
transplanted rice to direct dry seeded rice). Results indicated that RW system can be further
intensified and diversified by growing mungbean and early pigeon pea on raised beds during
summer and wet season. When these crops are planted on the raised beds they escape crop
losses due to temporary water logging. Thus, the raised bed planting system also offers
significant opportunities for intensification and diversification.

Table 1: Performance of tillage and crop establishment options on yield and return of crops under permanent furrow irrigated raised bed
planting system
Year
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Average
Technolo
gy
Crop/
Varity
FBTPR Rice
BPT-5204
CT
PEBTPR + R
CT
PEBDSR + R
CT
PEB-PP
CT
PEBDSR + R
CT
Rice
BPT-5204
Rice
Sugandha-3
Rice
MTU-7029
Rice
Sarju-52
Rice
Sarju-52
Pigeon pea
IPCL-
88390
Rice Sarju-
52
Rice
Sarju-52
Rice
Sarju-52
Yield
(Mg ha -1 )
Wet Session Dry Session
Total cost
(US $ ha -1 )
Total
Return
(US $ ha -1 )
Net Return
(US $ ha -1 )
Technol
o-gy
3.75 289 461 173 PEB-W
PEB-SMB
Crop/ Verity
Wheat PBW-343
Mungbean
Yield
((Mg ha -1 )
5.20
0.40
Total
cost (US
$ ha -1 )
232
35
Total
Return
(US $ ha -1 )
647
176
Net Return
(US $ ha -1 )
3.75 356 461 106 CT Wheat PBW-343 3.00 305 407 102
4.50 330 607 277 PEB-W Wheat PBW-343 5.20 267 670 403
3.00 408 416 8 CT Wheat PBW-343 3.00 318 437 119
4.00 320 569 249 PEB-W Wheat PBW-343 5.33 237 734 498
1.88 421 274 -143 CT Wheat PBW-343 3.12 337 497 159
1.50 250 844 594 PEB-W Wheat PBW-502 3.60 282 1040 76
3.20 402 461 2658.00 CT Wheat PBW-502 2.40 366 600 234
2.25 321 337 690.00 PEB-W Wheat PBW-502 5.00 452 1411 959
2.00 424 299 -125 CT Wheat PBW-502 3.00 374 867 493
PEBDSR+R
Rice
Sarju-52
5.20 301 796 495 PBW-W Wheat-PBW-502 4.60 283 1022 739
CT
Rice
Sarju-52
4.00 344 662 311 CT Wheat-PBW-502 3.60 467 956 488
PEB Rice 3.94 312 554 242 PEB Wheat 4.82 292 921 515
CT Rice 2.97 393 430 36 CT Wheat 3.02 361 657 266
415
143

References
Year
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Average
Technolo
gy
FBTPR
Total cost of
the system
(US $ ha -1 )
555
Whole System (RW)
Total return of
the system
(US $ ha -1 )
1286
Net return
of the
system (US
$ ha -1 )
731
B:C
ratio
1.32
CT 661 868 207 0.31
PEBTPR + R 597 1210 680 1.14
CT 726 852 126 0.17
PEBDSR + R 557 1303 747 1.34
CT 759 775 16 0.02
PEB-PP 531 1884 1353 2.55
CT 768 1061 293 0.38
PEBDSR + R 773 1748 975 1.26
CT 798 1166 368 0.46
PEBDSR+R 584 1818 1233 2.11
CT 819 1618 799 0.98
PEB 581 1553 952 1.64
Description of terminology used
CT 755 1057 302 0.40
FBTPR - Transplanted Rice on Fresh Beds. PEBTPR+R-
Transplanted rice on permanent beds with residue
PEBDSR+R- Direct seeded rice on permanent beds with residue. PEB - PP- Permanent
beds - Pigeon pea
PEB-SMB- Permanent beds - summer mungbean PEB-W- Permanent
beds - wheat
CT - Conventional Tillage/Traditional practice BC – Benefit cost
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Technologies : Transforming the Rice-Wheat systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains.
Rice-Wheat Consortium-A success story. Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural
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