TY - JOUR AV - public A1 - Chakraborty, D A1 - Ladha, J K A1 - Rana, D S A1 - Jat, M L A1 - Gathala, M K A1 - Yadav, S A1 - Rao, A N A1 - Ramesha, M S A1 - Raman, A TI - A global analysis of alternative tillage and crop establishment practices for economically and environmentally efficient rice production UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09742-9 JF - Scientific Reports SN - 2045-2322 PB - Nature Publishing Group N1 - The work was supported by the CGIAR research programmes on Rice Agri-Food Systems and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The help and support of the Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research during the course of the study is duly acknowledged. We also acknowledge the help of Dr. Mrs. Kalpana H. Kamble in producing the map with study locations in Q-GIS. N2 - Alternative tillage and rice establishment options should aim at less water and labor to produce similar or improved yields compared with traditional puddled-transplanted rice cultivation. The relative performance of these practices in terms of yield, water input, and economics varies across rice-growing regions. A global meta and mixed model analysis was performed, using a dataset involving 323 on-station and 9 on-farm studies (a total of 3878 paired data), to evaluate the yield, water input, greenhouse gas emissions, and cost and net return with five major tillage/crop establishment options. Shifting from transplanting to direct-seeding was advantageous but the change from conventional to zero or reduced tillage reduced yields. Direct-seeded rice under wet tillage was the best alternative with yield advantages of 1.3?4.7% (p?