Sustainability of post-green revolution agriculture; Long-term sustainability of the tropical and subtropical rice-wheat system; Productivity trends in intensive rice-wheat cropping systems in Asia; Sustainability of the rice-wheat system in Pakistan's Punjab; Soil physical effects of puddling in rice-wheat cropping systems; Technology options for rice in the rice-wheat system in South Asia; Resource-conserving technologies for wheat in the rice-wheat system; Managing crop residues in the rice-wheat system; Prospects for permanent beds for the rice-wheat system; The researcher-farmer interface in rice-wheat systems.

Addressing a topic of major importance to the maintenance of world food supplies, this reference identifies knowledge gaps, defines priorities, and formulates recommendations for the improvement of the rice-wheat farming system. The book reveals new systems of rice intensification and management and illustrates the application of no-till and conser

FAO’s best-selling 2011 publication, Save and Grow, proposed a new paradigm of agriculture, one that is both highly productive and environmentally sustainable. This new book looks at the application of “Save and Grow” practices and technologies to production of the world’s key food security crops – maize, rice and wheat. With examples drawn from developing countries worldwide, it shows how eco-friendly farming systems are helping smallholder producers to boost cereal yields, improve their incomes and livelihoods, conserve natural resources, reduce negative impacts on the environment, and build resilience to climate change. The book will be a valuable reference for policymakers and development practitioners guiding the transition to sustainable food and agriculture.

This book addresses aspects of rice production in rice-growing areas of the world including origin, history, role in global food security, cropping systems, management practices, production systems, cultivars, as well as fertilizer and pest management. As one of the three most important grain crops that helps to fulfill food needs all across the globe, rice plays a key role in the current and future food security of the world. Currently, no book covers all aspects of rice production in the rice-growing areas of world. This book fills that gap by highlighting the diverse production and management practices as well as the various rice genotypes in the salient, rice-producing areas in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Australia. Further, this text highlights harvesting, threshing, processing, yields and rice products and future research needs. Supplemented with illustrations and tables, this text is essential for students taking courses in agronomy and production systems as well as for agricultural advisers, county agents, extension specialists, and professionals throughout the industry.

This book analyzes the sustainability of community seed production under a rice–wheat farming system from microeconomic perspectives, considering how seed producers benefit from community seed production and how those benefits continue into the future. Seed producers’ performance in resource management, governance and marketing strategies indicates current benefits, whereas soil conservation and risk-management practices provide the basis for future benefits. Community seed production is a local-level seed management system owned by farmers. This system provides the institutional mechanism to supply diversified seed demands of open-pollinated varieties of food crops in a cost-effective way in rural regions. Being able to address the concerns of food insecurity, poverty, climate stress and biodiversity loss in programs and policies of development agencies, community seed production is gaining popularity among the farmers and the policy makers in developing countries. This book discusses the issues of organizational governance of the community seed producers’ groups and links them with household-level benefits to understand the organizational dynamism and the probable development paths of such organizations in the future. It also highlights the necessity to institutionalize lessons learned in community seed production in the stakeholders’ programs and policies. These understandings provide a basis for formulating policies for strengthening the system in developing countries. Students, researchers, policy makers and donor agencies working with CSP in the developing world will find this book useful in broadening their understanding of CSP in general and its sustainability in particular.