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Balwinder Singh
PhD Student
School School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences
Location Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga
Phone 02 6933 2749
Fax 02 6933 2812
Email bsingh@csu.edu.au
Project
Effect of rice mulch on wheat growth, yield and water productivity
Summary
The sustainability of the intensive rice-wheat cropping system in north-west India , and of rice based systems in Australia , is facing the challenge of management of post harvest rice residues. About 90% of rice residues are burnt rather than retained as mulch or incorporated into the soil. Recently, development of the Happy Seeder makes it possible to sow wheat into rice residues with the rice straw retained as mulch on the surface.
My PhD project will investigate the effects of mulching on wheat growth, development and yield, soil temperature, soil evaporation, soil mineral N transformations, water use, and water productivity using field experiments and simulation modelling. The results of the field monitoring, together with findings from the literature and past experiments, will be used to evaluate and refine the sub-routines in the crop model APSIM-wheat. The refined model will then be used to determine the likely impact of mulching on crop performance; water use, and water productivity using historic weather data sets.
Supervisors
Dr Phil Eberbach, Dr Liz Humphreys (IRRI) and Dr Peter Carberry (CSIRO)
Funding source
John Allwright Fellowship from ACIAR