Sustainability of Rice-Wheat Based Cropping Systems in India-Socio-Economic and Policy Issues

Systems in India Socio-Economic and Policy Issues Introduction RICE-WHEAT Cropping Systems (RWCS) gained prominence from the mid- 1960s with the introduction of short- duration and high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat during mid1960s. The rotation has spread in the most fertile regions and has covered about 10 million ha in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) region of India. It is more popular in the non- traditional rice growing states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and less in traditional rice growing states of Bihar and West Bengal. The impressive performance of the system during the last three decades resulted in a quantum jump in the production of rice and wheal, which largely contributed in achieving the food self-sufficiency in India, The foodgrain production increased from about 90 million tonnes in 1964-65 to about 190 million tonnes in 1994-95, at an annual growth of little over 2.5 per cent.