Soil Water Balance and Productivity of Different Maize-Based Crop Sequences Compared to Rice–Wheat System under Contrasting Irrigation Regimes in North–West India

An efficient management of water resources is considered essential for increased irrigation water productivity and for long-term sustainability of cropland ecosystems. In north-western India, the widespread adoption of conventional irrigation practices within water-intensive cropping systems like “rice-wheat” has led to frightening levels of water shortage and meager economic benefits. Diversified cropping systems, or producing different crops on the same piece of land at once, can increase revenue potential besides saving of irrigation water. Diversified cropping systems can help ensure the environmental and economic sustainability of agricultural operations, which can ultimately improve the livelihood of farmers. In this regard, this study aims to compare three maize-based crop sequences with rice–wheat system under different irrigation regimes. Specifically, rice equivalent yield, water balance, water productivity and net returns were assessed for different cropping systems under varied irrigation regimes. The study findings demonstrate significantly higher rice equivalent yield in maize–gobhi sarson–summer moong sequence under I_1.25, I_1.0 and conventional irrigation scheduling practice besides saving of ~ 687.5, 462.5 and 800 mm of irrigation water, respectively, compared to the rice–wheat sequence established under conventional irrigation scheduling. The cropping sequence with oilseeds and pulses as component crops, i.e., maize–gobhi sarson–summer moong and maize–potato–mentha + onion has ~ 1.85-times higher water use efficiency under I_1.25 as compared to the R–W cropping under conventional irrigation scheduling. The R–W cropping sequence under conventional irrigation regime resulted in the lowest average net returns compared with maize-based crop sequences established under I_1.25 and the conventional irrigation regime.