Agricultural policy in the 1960s and 1970s focused on food security through increased coverage of high-yielding varieties. This enabled rice (Oryza sativa L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L. and T. durum Desf.) to emerge as a major cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), ushering in the Green Revolution (GR). The GR technologies have remained the cornerstone of the South Asian strategy for food security, rural development, conservation of natural resources, and poverty alleviation. Evidence is now appearing that indicates the rice-wheat system has fatigued the natural resource base. Agriculture in now in need of an infusion of technologies to tap new sources of productivity growth. On the basis of driving variables for agricultural development, the IGP has been declineated into five relatively homogeneous transects to adress location-specific rice-wheat ecology problems. The integration of crop improvement; water management; nutrient management; weed, disease, and pest management; and policy and social science research in relation to crop establishment within these transects allows sustained production diversification, and enhanced system productivity. This chapter describes various options available to farmers for crop establishment and diversification in rice-wheat system ecology and the relative potential of improved technologies across the IGP. We highlight new strategies and draw upon some Chinese agrotechniques relevant to the rice-wheat system of the IGP.

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0308|AL-Wheat Program

CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection