Conservation Agriculture and Resource Management Under Jute (Corchorus spp.) based Cropping Systems in Eastern India

Conservation agriculture (CA) technologies involve paradigm shift from traditional agriculture and include minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues and crop diversification for achieving sustained productivity and making rational use of resources. The climate-resilient crop management technologies of CA reverse the degradation process inherent to the conventional agricultural practices like intensive agriculture, declining factor productivity and provide opportunities to reduce production cost, save inputs, improve soil properties, make efficient resource use and benefit the environment. For nearly two decades, several researches and policies have been disseminated that made significant multiple ecosystem services in the rice-wheat system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Likewise, there is a huge potential of CA in jute-based cropping system in eastern India, and there is an urgent need to frame policies and strategies to promote CA in the jute-growing regions of the country to bring sustenance in its production and quality. This article focuses on the emerging concerns due to the practice of conventional methods, and analyses the scope, constraints and research needs for CA and resource management in jute-based cropping systems of India.