Evidences from agronomic innovations shaping sustainable agriculture in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59797/ija.v70.i4.5658Keywords:
Agronomic innovations, Conservation agriculture, Integrated farming systems, Impact assessment, Resource-use efficiency, Precision nutrient managementAbstract
Indian agriculture continues to confront persistent challenges arising from low resource-use efficiency, substantial yield gaps, declining farm profitability, and escalating environmental stress, compounded by climate variability and growing food demand. While genetic improvement has driven productivity gains historically, the transformative role of agronomic innovations in enhancing system efficiency and sustainability remains comparatively underdocumented. This study synthesizes major agronomic technologies mainly from director of Agronomy ICAR-IARI, with the objective of quantifying their contributions to productivity, profitability, resource-use efficiency, and environmental sustainability. The scope encompasses critical irrigation scheduling (e.g., crown root initiation stage in wheat), conservation agriculture and integrated crop management, integrated farming systems, subsurface drip fertigation, precision nutrient management including neem-coated and nano-urea-based strategies, and advanced weed management solutions addressing herbicide resistance and zero-till systems. Evidence indicates that these technologies have generated substantial and scalable impacts, including yield gains of 10–30% in major cereals, water and nitrogen savings of 25–40%, significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and large economic benefits of several hundred crores annually at the national scale. Beyond productivity enhancement, these innovations have strengthened climate resilience, improved soil health, and reduced input dependency, underscoring agronomy’s central role in sustainable intensification. There may be several other success stories across the country, generated by different institutions and State Agricultural Universities, which remain unreported and therefore need proper documentation. This status paper is expected to serve as an icebreaker for systematic and scientific reporting of the real-field impact of agronomic interventions.
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