Conservation tillage and sprinkler irrigation for sustainable water management and enhanced crop yields in maize and field pea cropping system

The conservation agriculture (CA)-based approaches, including zero tillage (ZT)/reduced tillage (RT) with pulse-based cropping systems, support climate resilience in the long-run. However, the support services of CA are increasingly evident under irrigated agro-ecologies with normal/flood irrigation. Necessarily, the benefits of CA and pulse-based cropping intensification must be explored in under sprinkler irrigation system because of anticipated water scarcity across the globe. We aimed to compare the conservation tillage x sprinkler irrigation scheduling with conventional tillage (CT) and flood irrigation in a maize (Zea mays L.) and field pea (Pisum sativum L.) cropping system for two years. The study was undertaken in split-plot design with three tillage systems in main plots: ZT, reduced tillage (RT), and CT in both crops and six irrigation management subplots such as sprinkler irrigation and normal/flood irrigation scheduling at branching, pod formation, and branching + pod formation stages of field pea. Tillage practices followed an order of ZT > RT > CT (p < 0.05) for productivity of both crops. The ZT with sprinkler irrigation at branching + pod formation stages significantly increased field pea yield by 70% (CI 95%) and maize yield by 33.1% (CI 95%) compared with CT and flood irrigation (conventional practice). Consequently, ZT with sprinkler irrigation resulted in 18.8% and 6.7% (CI 95%) higher system productivity compared with CT and flood irrigation (p < 0.05). The ZT resulted in an additional net benefit of INR 45,912 compared with CT. Besides, sprinkler-irrigation provided an additional benefit of INR 13,903 compared with flood irrigation. The reduction in tillage intensity (ZT and RT) significantly increased water-use-efficiency (WUE) and water productivity (WP) compared to CT. Notably, ZT with sprinkler irrigation reduced the consumptive use of water compared to conventional practice. In a system perspective, ZT with sprinkler irrigation (at branch and pod formation) increased 59.2% WUE and 75.6% WP than conventional practice. Thus, in arid and semi-arid regions, where water resources are scarce, conservation tillage with micro-irrigation can be adopted in pulse-based cropping system.