A well-managed chemical nitrogen (N) fertilization practice combined with treated swine slurry (TSS) is necessary to improve sustainability and N use efficiency in rice farming. However, little is known about the fate of N derived from chemical N fertilizer with and without TSS in paddy soil-plant systems.

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Crop management practices have a significant impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rates, where methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from rice paddy fields are in trade-off association. A field study for two consecutive years (2013 and 2014) was conducted to continuously measure CH4 and N2O emissions from rice paddies under various agricultural management schedules like water regimes (irrigated and rainfed), transplanting dates and nutritional amendments (synthetic fertilizer with N as ammonium sulphate, P and K according to recommended dose, and vermicompost).

While outlining strategies to increase availability of pulses at affordable prices, it is argued that increasing domestic production of pulses is the only option. Access to one or two protective irrigation sources during the growing season can lead to sizeable increases in pulse production. The har khet ko paani initiative should give priority to pulse-producing areas. The minimum support price, without procurement, helps traders more than farmers because it acts as a focal point for tacit collusion among traders.

Attempts to measure the impacts of climate change on agriculture must invariably rely on models that translate changes in climate to changes in agricultural outcomes. This need for models exists even when assessing the impacts of climate trends that have already occurred, since simultaneous changes in other factors that affect agriculture, such as technologies and government policies, preclude direct observations of impacts. Over several decades, many approaches to developing these models have evolved, with most falling into one of two camps.

The rainfed areas receive mean annual precipitation in range of 500-1500 mm with high degree of variability and are beset with problems of mid-season drought and associated impacts on the crop productivity. In this paper, analysis of weekly, monthly, annual rainfall and weekly rainfall probabilities in relation to crop productivity has been carried out for all the stations of the study area in West Bengal where rain-fed agriculture is predominant.