The research questions

• What is the potential of various resource conservation technologies to save water, improve crop yields, reduce production costs and improve net farm incomes when used on farmers' fields under existing hydrological, water management, institutional and socio-economic conditions?
• How do these technologies interact with the natural resource base and contribute to reducing over use of groundwater and nutrients?
• How can the developed technologies be improved and its adoption accelerated by means of farmers' participatory trials at farmers' fields and through development of partnerships among government agencies, research organizations, machinery manufacturers, farmers and other important stakeholders?

Objectives

• The main objectives is to assess the water saving potential at field, farm and watercourse levels through alternative wheat and rice establishment and crop management practices and their effects on groundwater table and quality.
• Developing system solutions for location/ site-specific productivity and sustainability issues in the Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Methods

• Four watercourse command areas were selected from the Sheikhupura District of Rice-Wheat zone of the Punjab Pakistan. Field scale testing and development of various rice-and wheat crop establishment methods was carried out at three watercourses at the farmers' field.
• The performance of the following resource conservation technologies were compared with the conventional methods of production:
1. Direct seeding of rice on flat fields and wheat with zero tillage
2. Direct seeding of rice on beds and wheat on beds with two rows
3. Transplanting of rice on beds and wheat on beds with three rows
4. Transplanting of rice by conventional method and conventional wheat cultivation.
• At field, farm and watercourse scales, the data on water balance (rainfall, irrigation, deep percolations, climatic data for calculating evapotranspiration etc.) and agronomic practices (sowing and harvesting dates, tillage operations, fertilizer, pesticides, crop yields etc) were collected through field instrumentation, questionnaire surveys and secondary sources, by well trained field staff permanently deployed at field sites. Water productivity was estimated on the basis of yield and monetary value per unit of gross inflow and irrigation inflow.
• The awareness and prospects of promotion of resource conservation technologies among the farming community of the area were enhanced through conducting farmer field days with active participation of researchers, machinery manufactures, farmers and other stakeholders. Socio-economic surveys were conducted on seasonal and annual basis to study the socio-economic aspects of the adoption of resource conservation technologies in the study area.

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