Jat et al. (2025) Maize as an alternative to resource-intensive rice: Empirical insights from on-farm participatory study under diverse agricultural scenarios in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Northwestern India

Identification

• Journal: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-05
• Authors: S. L. Jat, H.S. Jat, Sujay Rakshit, Ph. Romen Sharma, Bhupender Kumar, Manish Kakraliya, Mahesh K. Gathala, Deepak Bijarniya, Kailash Chandra Kalwania, Yadvinder Singh, Madhu Choudhary, M.L. Jat
• DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1700854

Research Groups

• ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR), Ludhiana, Punjab, India
• ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology (IIAB), Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
• International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), New Delhi, India
• Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, Punjab, India
• ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal, Haryana, India
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, India

Short Summary

This study empirically evaluates maize as a sustainable alternative to resource-intensive rice in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Northwestern India. It finds that while maize yields are slightly lower, its cultivation significantly enhances profitability, water productivity, and environmental sustainability compared to rice.

Objective

• To provide conclusive empirical evidence by comparing yield, profitability, irrigation water use, water productivity, energy use, and global warming potential (GWP) to diversify a sizable proportion of the area under rice in the rice-wheat (RW) system to maize-based systems in the Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains (NW-IGP) of Punjab and Haryana.
• Hypothesized that replacing rice with maize would enhance crop and water productivity and net returns, reduce environmental footprints, and ultimately enhance the adoption of the maize-wheat system.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: On-farm participatory experiments conducted in nine districts (six in Punjab, three in Haryana) across the Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains of India.
• Temporal Scale: Three kharif (monsoon) seasons, from 2021 to 2023.

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • CCAFS Mitigation Options Tool (CCAFS-MOT) for Global Warming Potential (GWP) estimation, based on IPCC guidelines.
  • NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project database (Goddard’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) model products and GMAO Forward Processing–Instrument Teams (FP-IT) GEOS 5.12.4 near-real-time products) for meteorological data.
  • SAS 9.1 software for descriptive statistics.
  • R statistical software version 4.3.1 (R Core Team, 2022) in R Studio (ggplot2 package) for data visualization (box and whisker plots, correlation panel graphs).
  • Meta-Win 2.0 for meta-analysis using a mixed-effect model.
• Data sources:
  • On-farm farmers’ participatory experiments (n = 250) on both rice and maize fields.
  • Farmer interviews to collect data on agronomic practices and inputs (e.g., fertilizer, tillage, number of irrigations, fuel consumption, labour, pesticides).
  • Grain yields determined from 25 m² net area samples from three random locations per field.
  • Secondary meteorological data (minimum/maximum temperatures, rainfall) obtained using GPS coordinates of study sites.

Main Results

• The mean rice equivalent yield (REY) of maize was 6.6% lower than rice across all districts.
• Wheat yield after maize was 16.7% higher than after rice.
• Rice required approximately 10 times more irrigations than maize, leading to ~1,040% higher irrigation water productivity in maize.
• Net returns from maize were 46.5% (Haryana) and 32.5% (Punjab) higher than rice under subsidized electricity.
• Total Global Warming Potential (GWP) of maize was ~63% lower than rice.
• Energy use in maize cultivation declined by ~271% compared to rice.
• Labour use in maize cultivation declined by 38.6% compared to rice.
• Diesel consumption in maize cultivation declined by ~37% compared to rice.
• The cost of cultivation for rice was markedly higher than maize due to greater energy inputs.

Contributions

• Provides conclusive empirical evidence from a large-scale (n=250) on-farm participatory study across diverse agricultural scenarios in Northwestern India, addressing existing knowledge gaps.
• Quantitatively demonstrates the significant environmental (reduced GWP, water, and energy use) and economic (higher net returns, lower cultivation costs) advantages of maize over rice.
• Highlights the potential of shifting from a rice-wheat to a maize-wheat cropping system as a viable and climate-smart alternative for enhancing profitability, resource-use efficiency, and environmental sustainability in a region facing severe water and energy crises.
• Offers policy recommendations for promoting maize-based diversification through financial incentives and rationalization of electricity subsidies.

Funding

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Government of India.
• International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Citation

@article{Jat2025Maize,
  author = {Jat, S. L. and Jat, H.S. and Rakshit, Sujay and Sharma, Ph. Romen and Kumar, Bhupender and Kakraliya, Manish and Gathala, Mahesh K. and Bijarniya, Deepak and Kalwania, Kailash Chandra and Singh, Yadvinder and Choudhary, Madhu and Jat, M.L.},
  title = {Maize as an alternative to resource-intensive rice: Empirical insights from on-farm participatory study under diverse agricultural scenarios in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Northwestern India},
  journal = {Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3389/fsufs.2025.1700854},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1700854}
}

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