02/03/2023, 00:58 Energy budgeting and carbon footprints of zero-tilled pigeonpea–wheat cropping system under sole or dual crop

al crop basis residue mulching an…

Energy
Volume 231, 15 September 2021, 120862

Energy budgeting and carbon footprints of zero-tilled pigeonpea–wheat

cropping system under sole or dual crop basis residue mulching and Zn-
fertilization in a semi-arid agro-ecology
Adarsh Kumar a, K.S. Rana a, Anil K. Choudhary a , R.S. Bana a, V.K. Sharma a, Shiv Prasad a, Gaurendra Gupta a,
Mukesh Choudhary b, Amaresh Pradhan a, Sudhir K. Rajpoot a, Abhishek Kumar c, Amit Kumar a, Vishal Tyagi d

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Abstract

Conventional agriculture is energy and carbon intensive. Single and double-crop basis residue-mulching in
zero-tilled crop-sequences may minimize carbon-footprint with improved crop and energy productivity in
water-scarce ecologies. Zn-fertilization is also vital for drought-stress tolerance besides enhanced
productivity and quality in Zn-deficient arid-soils. Hence, we compared the single and double-crop basis
residue-mulching alongwith Hydrogel and Zn-fertilization in zero-tilled pigeonpea-wheat system. Results
showed that double-crop residue-mulching + Hydrogel exhibited ∼22.3 and 17.1% higher system-productivity
over no-residue and single-crop residue-mulching plots while maintaining higher net-returns (1315
US$/ha). Crop-residue covering consumed considerable energy (77.3–89.1% of total consumption) and
carbon (5–10 folds). Thick residue-cover (8 t/ha/year) under double-crop residue-mulching + Hydrogel
exhibited significantly higher energy-output (238,328 MJ ha−1), energy-intensiveness (107.3 MJ/US$) and
specific energy (20.15 MJ kg−1) compared to single-crop residue-mulching; whereas energy-use efficiency,
energy productivity and profitability were higher under no-residue cover. Zn-fertilization (5 kg ha−1)
alongwith Zn-solubilizer in both crops also enhanced the biomass and energy productivity over sole-Zn or
no-Zn. Interestingly, carbon footprints increased with residue-covering (4–8 t/ha/year) while least under no-
residues. Therefore, farmers should preserve a balance while mulching the residues in single or both crops
besides necessitating Zn-fertilization in Zn-deficient arid and semi-arid regions where livestock equally
competes for residues as quality fodder.

Introduction

Efficient use of energy is highly essential to achieve enhanced productivity, profitability and agricultural
sustainability in agricultural production systems [[1], [2], [3]]. The energy input–output relationship and
productivity in agricultural production systems depends upon the nature of crops grown in sequence, farm

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02/03/2023, 00:58 Energy budgeting and carbon footprints of zero-tilled pigeonpea–wheat cropping system under sole or dual crop basis residue mulching an…

mechanization, tillage practices, amount of organic manures and chemical fertilizers, plant protection, crop
harvest and post-harvest operations, production levels and nature of farm produce, farm resources and the
soil, etc. [[4], [5], [6], [7]]. The conventionally-tilled (CT) rice–wheat cropping system (RWCS) in Indo-
Gangetic plains region (IGPR) of south-Asia followed over six decades, is characterized with intensive tillage
management, imbalanced chemical fertilizers use, non-use of organic manures vis-a-vis exclusion of
legumes [[8], [9], [10], [11]]. Thus, this system is facing multiple challenges like decline in factor
productivity, impaired quality, yield stagnation and diminishing farm profitability despite of higher
production costs and energy input owing to acute soil health and natural resource-base degradation, etc.
[8,10,[12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]]. In addition, the IGPR characterized with semi-arid climate, severely
suffers from crop moisture stress due to poor and uneven rainfall pattern, intermittent droughts, and
depleting groundwater table, etc. [12,18,19]; all of which are posing serious threat to the natural resources
and agricultural sustainability in the region [11,18,19]. Hence, prevailing agricultural situation in IGPR
emphasize upon using cost-effective, energy-efficient and climate-resilient practices like zero-tillage, crop
residue retention/mulching and crop diversification with legumes for higher crop and energy productivity,
profitability and resource-use efficiency for bringing agricultural and environmental sustainability in the
region [9,12,20,21].

In above background, the low water and energy requiring pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp]–wheat
(Triticum aestivum L.) cropping system (PWCS) in combination with conservation agriculture (CA) may prove
highly beneficial for diversifying the high water and energy requiring conventional RWCS in semi-arid
region of India where water and energy crisis is a highly vulnerable issue in the farm sector [3,7,22]. The
PWCS is one of the major cropping systems in semi-arid region of India in general and IGPR in particular
occupying ∼3.58 m ha acreage across the nation. Pigeonpea alone is an important pulse crop after chickpea
in India which is grown in ∼5.4 m ha area producing about 4.8 mt grains [7,23]. Pigeonpea requires less
irrigation water due to deeper root system which helps in coping-up the moisture-stress in water-scarce
ecologies [3,23,24]. This N-fixer legume contributes ∼1.5–2 t nitrogen rich leaf litter per ha which covers the
soil surface and reduces weeds and soil erosion besides conserving moisture with improved soil health
[13,14,25]. Zero-tillage (ZT) coupled with crop residue retention (CRR) or residue mulching is the major
component of conservation agriculture (CA) which requires less fuel and energy for tillage operations
resulting in lower CO2 emissions and carbon footprints [26,27]. Thus, use of crop residues as mulch or CRR
under ZT based PWCS system in semi arid-ecologies may prove highly beneficial to improve the soil
moisture conservation, nutrient recycling, soil carbon pool, soil health, soil temperature modulation
[10,13,14,[28], [29], [30]], and reduced weed menace [17,31]. Crop residue retention or mulching alongwith
pigeonpea leaf-litter may further prove as a boon to counter the terminal heat stress (abrupt rise in
temperature >34 °C at wheat grain-filling stage) in wheat under PWCS [7], by buffering the soil temperature
and moisture in semi-arid north-west [7,10,13]. Under limited water environments, it's already a great
challenge to sustain the crop and energy productivity and resource-use efficiency using optimized tillage
management practices over conventional tillage [10,18,[32], [33], [34], [35]]. Hence, PWCS following soil
moisture conservation through crop residue-retention or mulching under ZT system may have moisture
stress-diminishing effect due to favourable crop micro-climate besides reduced energy input in PWCS
leading to higher crop, water and energy productivity with improved moisture retention, soil carbon
retention and soil health [3,35]. Moreover, the ZT based PWCS system can be successfully implemented both
under small-scale and large-scale farms in semi-arid ecologies through custom-hiring of extensively
available CA machinery and predominance of mechanised farmers in the region, respectively [10].

Use of synthetic polymers may also help in improving the soil moisture retention and its availability to
crops besides reducing the evaporation losses due to polymer swelling mechanism and its positive influence
on soil structure, aggregate stability, hydraulic conductivity and retention pores [[36], [37], [38]]. Hence, use

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of hydrogels like Pusa hydrogel in could be another viable option in semi-arid climates. The Pusa hydrogel
developed by Indian Agricultural Research Institute–New Delhi, is a bio-degradable, cellulose based
superabsorbent polymer absorbs water ∼350 times of its weight, and releases the moisture to the crop
when it comes under stress [35]. Semi-arid region of south-Asia in general and IGPR in particular under
conventional RWCS, is also facing widespread Zinc (Zn) deficiency [[39], [40], [41]], causing major risk to
plant and human health [39,42,43]. Zn-deficiency may cause ∼40% crop yield losses [44]. Zn an essential
micronutrient plays a key role in drought stress tolerance by regulating plant water relations, cell
membrane stability, stomatal regulation, water-use efficiency, photosynthesis and finally better crop yields
[45]. Zn is important for amino acid and protein biosynthesis [40,41], besides it increases the expression of
stress proteins and stimulates the antioxidant enzymes for countering drought stress [41,45]. Since, both
rice and wheat crops are nutrient exhaustive in nature and the IGPR farmers have largely neglected the use
of organics and micronutrient fertilizers since past several decades, as a result ∼40% of the Indian soils have
turned into Zn-deficient soils [46]. Zn-fertilization is more beneficial in legumes to enhance root nodulation
and productivity with better Zn-biofortified grains and straw [41,47]. Zn-solubilizers like Bacillus
endophyticus may also enhance the availability of native-Zn in the soil [41,48], especially under ZT system
where organic matter rich soils may improve their efficacy while acting as substrate for nutrient availability,
survival and bacterial population build-up [45]. Thus, Zn-fertilization may hold great promises when we are
in process to diversify the conventional RWCS with CA based PWCS in water-scarce semi-arid IGPR.
Furthermore, as the CA based cultivation in India is relatively a new system of crop establishment; therefore,
Zn management protocols for PWCS are not available.

India generates ∼686 mt crop residues of which ∼226 mt is actually available for agriculture with nutrient
potential of ∼5.6 mt NPK. It is estimated that in situ crop residue burning releases ∼627 kilo tonnes (Kt) of
PM10 and 4677 Kt of carbon monoxide in atmosphere annually in India [49]. Crop residue management in ZT
systems may add to soil carbon pool while in terms of energy; it may save ∼3000 MJ energy/ha due to less
fuel consumption owing to less tillage operations compared to CT as recognized worldwide [3,10,50,51].
Minimum mechanical soil disturbance, organic mulch cover and inclusion of legumes constitute the major
practices under CA which improves the crop and energy productivity [1,2,11,52], resource-use efficiency [13,
[53], [54], [55]], and soil health [10,13,56,57], besides many environmental benefits [10,50,[58], [59], [60]].
Hence, in order to explore the possibilities of an alternative crop rotation like PWCS over the conventional
RWCS, it is highly essential to assess the system energy and carbon budgeting of CA based PWCS that too
under limited irrigation [7,19,25]. However, the meagre information is available on the effects of
conservation agriculture on the system biomass productivity, economic profitability and resource-use
efficiency of this promising cropping system facing acute water-stress especially under prevailing
production- and resource-vulnerabilities in semi-arid IGPR. Most of the studies on conservation tillage in
PWCS did not take into account the effects of sole and dual crop basis residue retention or mulching on
system productivity, economic benefits, energetics and carbon footprints in water-scarce semi-arid IGPR.
There is an urgent need to abridge the research gaps related to systematic assessment of energy and carbon
budgeting and carbon footprints of zero-tilled PWCS under sole or dual crop basis residue mulching and Zn
fertilization so as to develop a sound CA based technology package for PWCS in semi-arid agro-ecologies.
Hence, a two-years field study was conducted to assess the effect of sole and dual crop basis residue
mulching alongwith Hydrogel as well as Zn-fertilization on crop productivity and profitability, energy and
carbon budgeting, and carbon footprints of zero-tilled pigeonpea–wheat cropping system under limited
irrigation in semi-arid agro-ecology.

Section snippets

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02/03/2023, 00:58 Energy budgeting and carbon footprints of zero-tilled pigeonpea–wheat cropping system under sole or dual crop basis residue mulching an…

Study site and climate

The field experiment was conducted during 2014–15 and 2015–16 at Experimental Farm of ICAR–Indian
Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India (28.40 N Latitude; 77.10 E Longitude; 229 m Altitude).
The climate is sub-tropical and semi-arid type, having hot and dry summers and cold winters, and falls
under the agro-climatic zone ‘Trans-Gangetic plains’. Rainfall received during the experimental period is
depicted in Fig. 1. May and June were the hottest months with mean daily max.…

Crop productivity

The moisture management practices (MMPs) and zinc fertilization practices (ZFPs) had significant effect on
grain and stover/straw yield of both pigeonpea and wheat under conservation agriculture (CA) based
pigeonpea–wheat cropping system (PWCS) (Table 3). Treatment WRRPPRRW + HGPW [Wheat residue
mulching in pigeonpea (WRRP) and pigeonpea residue mulching in wheat (PRRW) @ 4 t ha−1 each + Hydrogel @
2.5 kg ha−1 in both crops (HGPW)] resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) higher grain yield of both …

Conclusions

Current study evaluated the productivity, energetics, economics and environmental performance of single
and dual crop basis crop residue mulching as well as Zn-fertilization in zero-tilled pigeonpea–wheat
cropping system (PWCS) in semi-arid agro-ecology. It was observed that double crop basis residue mulching
@ 4 t ha−1 each plus Hydrogel both in pigeonpea and wheat maintained 17.1–22.3% higher productivity, 23.7–
36.1% higher profitability and 14.7–23.1% higher energy output over single crop…

Author contribution

Adarsh Kumar: Conceptualization, Data curation, Project administration, Writing. K.S. Rana:
Conceptualization, Data curation, Project administration. Anil K. Choudhary: Conceptualization, Data
curation, Project administration, Writing, Editing. R.S. Bana: Project administration. V.K. Sharma: Project
administration. Shiv Prasad: Project administration. Gaurendra Gupta: Data curation. Mukesh Choudhary:
Data curation. Amaresh Pradhan: Data curation. Amaresh Pradhan: Data curation. Sudhir K.…

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that
could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.…

Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India for financial
assistance and technical support to carry-out this study.…

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