Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
art facilities for climatic research is one of the major constraints to predict whether rise in
temperature along with CO2 have positive or negative effect on crop yield of the region. This
study involves one of the foremost state-of-the-art facilities like Free Air Temperature
Enrichment (FATE) to test the positive or negative impact of elevated temperature and CO2
on the second most important crop of the region i.e. maize after the rice. Similarly, what are
the possible adaptation strategies, if crop performance is affected, to compensate the crop
yield loss due to climate change. Therefore, we conducted this study under the state-of-the-art
facility (FATE) under open field condition with an anticipation like other parts, the crop
productivity may be adversely affected.
Methodology
An experiment using FATE chambers was conducted at the NICRA Research farm of ICAR
Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya. The mean annual rainfall is about
2208 mm with minimum temperature of 6.8 o C and maximum of 29.7 o C. The main
treatments are (i) ambient CO 2 (ACO 2) and ambient temperature (AT) (ii) Ambient CO 2 +
elevated temperature (ET) and (iii) Elevated CO2 (ECO2) +ET. The three adaptation
strategies namely a) 100% organic (FYM) (T2), b) 100% inorganic fertilizers (T3) and c)
integrated nutrient management practices (INM) (T4) were compared with the absolute
control (T1). FYM was applied at the rate equivalent to nitrogen content in FYM and P was
supplemented through rock phosphate in T2 and T4, accordingly. We selected maize (RCM
1-61) as the test crop and conducted the experiment for two consecutive years (2021-22)
during kharif season. The initial properties of the soil samples were analysed using the
standard procedures. At the end of the harvest, plant parameters including yield were
recorded as per the standard procedures. Harvest Index (HI) was calculated using the formula
outlined by Kemanian et al. (2007).
Results
The plant height was significantly influenced by the ECO2 and ET. The plant height ranged
from 290.5 cm (T 1) to 309.7 cm (T 3) in ACO 2+AT; 245.5 cm (T 1) to 257.2 cm (T 3) in
ACO 2+ET and 275.8 cm (T 1) to 311.9 (T 3) under both ECO2+ET treatments. ET decreased
the plant height by 19.3% over ACO2+AT however, addition of ECO2 along with ET
nullified the negative impact of ET on plant height which is at par with ACO 2+AT (296.6
cm). Irrespective of the nutrient management treatments, the biomass yield ranged from 8.37
(T1) to 9.49 (T4) t ha -1 in ACO2+AT; 6.63 (T1) to 8.06 (T2) t ha -1 under ACO2+ET and 8.18
(T 1) to 9.55 (T 4) t ha -1 under both ECO 2+ET treatments (Fig. 1a). Similarly, the maize grain
yield ranged from 3.97 (T1) to 4.58 (T4) t ha -1 in ACO2+AT; 2.67 (T1) to 3.23 (T4) t ha -1
under ACO 2+ET and 2.93 to 4.06 (T3) t ha -1 under both ECO 2+ET treatments (Fig. 1b).
Overall, the biomass and maize grain yield were in the range between 6.63 to 9.55 t ha -1 and
2.67 to 4.58 t ha -1 , respectively. ET caused 44% reduction in grain yield over ACO2+AT
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Climate resilient agriculture for risk mitigation