Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges & Opportunities
during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
T4a-01O-1256
Zero Tillage-based in-situ rice Straw Management to Reduce in GHGs Emission and
Build Up Labile Carbon Pool in Lowland Rice
S. P. Parida, P. Bhattacharyya, S.R Padhy, A. Das, S. Swain and S. K. Nayak
ICAR- National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack Odisha-753006, India
Total rice straw production currently stands at 731 million tonnes, with a distribution of 1.7,
3.9, 20.9, 37.2 and 667.6 million tonnes in Oceania, Europe, Africa, America, and Asia
country respectively. In India, rice straw production is not lesser than 126.6 million tonnes
(Bhattacharyya et.al., 2019). Handling the huge straw is an issue particularly in north-west
India where wheat is shown just after 20-25 days of rice harvest. Lack of economically viable
alternative options to utilize straw, the rice farmers in India especially from the northern
states of Punjab and Haryana choose to burn the straw in their fields. Even more alarming is
the fact that the practice of rice straw burning is spreading rapidly in eastern Indian states like
West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand. Nearly 16% of crop residues are burnt on farms
in India of which 60% is rice straw for recent decades, rice straw burning is of serious
concern as it causes sever air pollution, nutrient and biodiversity losses. Recent estimates
showed that from November to December in last 4-5 years, straw burn contributed to nearly
70% of air pollution in the national capital region of India. Burning primarily causes the
emission of harmful gases and particulate matter which increases air pollution and
greenhouse gas/ carbon footprint significantly. So, we need to find out economically viable,
socially acceptable, and eco-friendly solutions for the alternative uses of rice straw. In-situ
management is one of the viable options of straw management. However, in-situ retention
and subsequent incorporation in soil may cause GHGs emission in lowland rice along with
carbon build up. The objective of the study was to assess the effect the in-situ straw
management on soil carbon pools, enzymatic activities and GHGs emission in lowland rice.
Methodology
We have conducted a field experiment at ICAR-NRRI experimental fields (B13, 14 ab Block)
during Kharif season 2021 for in-situ management of rice straw. Four treatment viz., (i)
Immediate incorporation of rice straw after harvesting (IIRS) (T1), (ii) Zero tillage (with
glyphosate spray) (T2), (iii) Spreading of straw over the field (T3) and (iv) Zero tillage with
straw retention (T4) (without glyphosate spray) were imposed in the field randomly with five
replications as shown in both table and figure. The soil labile carbon pools- microbial
biomass carbon (MBC); readily mineralizable carbon (RMC), enzymatic activities {βglucosidase,
dehydrogenase activity (DHA) and fluorescein diacetate activity (FDA)} and
GHGs {carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4), nitrous oxide (N 2O)} were estimated in all treatments
after the imposition of the treatments at an interval of 3, 8,13, 18, 23, 28, 33 and 38 days.
Resource conservation and rainfed agriculture
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