Description

Poster. Abstract: Permanent raised bed cultivation for rice-wheat cropping systems in South Asia is a paradigm shift from the conventional practice of planting on flat land.

Conventional practice involves substantial tillage and puddling of soil, thereby destroying soil aggregates and promoting soil organic matter degradation. Permanent beds employ a bed and furrow planting configuration that is maintained for all crops with only periodic reshaping. Without tillage, beds allow soil aggregates to be rebuilt over time, provide deeper rooting, and better air/water relationships in the soil. Particularly attractive are the possibilities for reducing water inputs by furrow irrigation compared to flood irrigation, and improved fertilizer N recovery by banding nitrogen into the soil between two rows on a bed.

We present here the results from three experiment station trials comparing conventional and permanent bed cultivation in rice-wheat systems of Nepal and Bangladesh ongoing since 2001. Emphasis is on crop productivity trends, nitrogen use and irrigation inputs.