Modelling the impact of different irrigation regimes and mulching on strawberry crop growth and water use in the arsenic-contaminated Bengal basin.

Replacement of water-intensive winter rice with strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) may restrict groundwater extraction and improve water productivity and sustainability of agricultural production in the arsenic-contaminated Bengal basin. The potential of strawberry cultivation in terms of yield obtained and water use efficiency need to be evaluated under predominant soil types with mulch applications. Water-driven model AquaCrop was used to predict the canopy cover, soil water storage and above-ground biomass of strawberry in an arsenic-contaminated area in the Bengal basin. After successful calibration and validation over three seasons, AquaCrop was used over a range of management scenarios (nine drip-irrigation × three soil types × four mulch materials) to identify the best irrigation options for a drip-irrigated strawberry crop. The most appropriate irrigation of 176 mm for clay loam soil in lowland and 189 mm for sandy clay loam in medium land rice areas and the use of organic mulch from locally available jute agrotextile improved 1.4 times higher yield and 1.7 times higher water productivity than that of without mulch. Strawberry can be introduced as an alternative crop replacing rice in non-traditional upland and medium land areas of the arsenic-contaminated Bengal basin with 88% lower groundwater extraction load and better economic return to farmers.

Assessment of soil health parameters and application of the sustainability index to fields under conservation agriculture for 3, 6, and 9 years in India.

The effect of duration of conservation agriculture adoption on soil carbon dynamics and system sustainability was evaluated on farms of 30 villages in the Nilokheri block of Karnal district, Haryana, India. Sustainability was evaluated, in which a number of soil physical, chemical, and biological parameters were measured and a Sustainability Index (SI) was applied. Soil samples were collected from existing conservation agriculture (CA) and conventional tillage (CT) farms. Villages under CA practices were subdivided as CA3, CA6, and CA9 based on the number of years of CA practice adoption. Results showed that bulk density (BD) of 0-15 cm soil depth was 7% greater in CA3 plots, whereas in CA6 and CA9 plots BD values were only 2% and 3% higher than CT. Soil organic carbon (SOC) in 0-15 cm soil depth was found to be greater by 16.32% in CA3 than CT plots, whereas SOC was higher by 38.77% and 61.22% in CA6 and CA9. In CA, for the 0-15 and 15-30 cm soil depths, labile pools were 36% and 22% greater than CT, respectively. For both the soil depths in CA, the recalcitrant pool was 12% and 9% more than CT, respectively. Microbial biomass carbon (MBC) values of the 0-15 cm soil depth were increased over CT by 18.57%, 47.08%, and 71.5% for CA3, CA6, and CA9 respectively. In CA plots, the SI of 0-15 cm soil depth ranged between cumulative ratings (CR) of 18-21, which indicates that CA practice is "sustainable" for both soil depths. For CT, CR ranged from 25 to 30 for both soil depths resulting in a SI of "sustainability with high input". Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) scores showed that SOC had the maximum weight (0.96) towards sustainability, giving it a rank of 1. Effective rooting depth (ERD), BD, texture, and wilting point (WP) ranked 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, indicating their corresponding weight of contribution towards the SI. Farmers in the Karnal district should be encouraged to adopt CA practices as they can increase SOC and move the systems from "sustainable with high input" to "sustainable".