Energy efficiency and carbon footprints of rice-wheat system under long-term tillage and residue management practices in western Indo-Gangetic Plains in India

Conventional rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) in western Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) is carbon and energy intensive. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate energy budgeting, carbon footprints (CF) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from RWCS under long-term tillage and residue management practices. Experiment consisted six treatment combination of tillage [conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and zero tillage (ZT)] and residue [with residue (+R) and without residue (-R)] namely (i) CT-R (conventional farmers' practice), (ii) CT + R, (iii) RT-R, (iv) RT + R, (v) ZT-R and (vi) ZT + R. Energy consumption ranged from 51.87 GJ ha(-1)& nbsp;(ZT-R) to 64.91 GJ ha(-1)& nbsp;(CT + R) and irrigation water was major energy intensive input (41-4 4%) followed by chemical fertilizer (32-40%). Compared to CT-R, energy use efficiency (EUE) increased by 8.7-22.4%, CF lowered by 77.9-34.3%, and GHG emission lowered by 12.8 16.3% in different treatments. Residue addition enhanced the soil carbon accumulation in ZT + R (1213 kg C ha(-1)& nbsp;yr(-1)) and RT + R (987 kg C ha(-1)& nbsp;yr(-1)). Overall, switching from CT-R to ZT + R lowered energy consumption (19%), GHG emission (16%) and CF (78%), making it best-bet option for climate change mitigation and global warming related environmental protection in western IGP and similar agro ecologies.& nbsp;(c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.