The lives of more than a billion people depend on the answer!

This valuable book surveys the problems of the rice-wheat cropping system practiced on the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). Introduced at the time of the Green Revolution, it transformed agriculture and produced thirty years of bumper crops. The Rice-Wheat Cropping System of South Asia: Efficient Production Management offers scientific analysis of the aftereffects of this intense cropping.

The Rice-Wheat Cropping System of South Asia: Efficient Production Management focuses on the questions of soil depletion, pest infestation, and soil alkalinity as elements of declining productivity. Along with clear charts, maps, and graphs, it provides practical suggestions for improving and maintaining the productivity of this irreplaceable farmland.

The Rice-Wheat Cropping System of South Asia looks at the problems that have arisen for both the rice and wheat phases, including:

• depletion of micronutrients
• degradation of major nutrients from unbalanced fertilization practices
• infestations of nematodes
• increasing soil alkalinity as a result of irrigation

It also suggests solutions for maintaining productivity, including:

• integrated pest management
• sustainable agriculture
• micronutrient fertilizers

This informative book and its companion volume, The Rice-Wheat Cropping System of South Asia: Trends, Constraints, Productivity and Policy, are essential planning tools for agronomists, policymakers, and agroeconomists. It is also a useful reference for anyone interested in the problems of famine and intensive cropping not only in South Asia but in the world.