The overall objective is to improve the productivity and sustainability of rice-wheat cropping systems through increased efficiency of water and nutrient use. The specific objective is to modify existing water and nutrient management systems, and improve soil management in both traditional and emerging tillage systems, for sustainable intensification of cereal production.
A Consultants' Meeting held at FAO Headquarters, Rome, 23-25 August 2000, recommended (i) initiation of a CRP
to improve soil, water and nutrient management in Asian rice-wheat systems, utilizing: innovative soil and water management techniques, (ii) selection of research contract holders
from Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan on the basis of on-going activities in the rice-wheat system, so that the planned activities in the CRP can be integrated into
existing experiments, (iii) to conduct research on the impact of changed soil management practices (direct seeding, hill planting, non-puddled rice soils) on the interaction
between soil water and plant nutrients, particularly nitrogen, potassium, sulfur, silicon, boron, and zinc and (iv) the use of nuclear and related techniques such as neutron probes
or other equipment to monitor soil water status, the isotope 15N to measure fertilizer N use efficiency, and cycling of N from crop residues, including legumes. Seven research
contracts: Md. M. Alam (Bangladesh), Pan Jiarong (China), Qirong Shen (China), M.S. Sachdev (India), Yadvinder Singh (India), Ram Munankarmy (Nepal), Fayaz Hussain (Pakistan),
two technical contracts: G. Blair (Australia) and JK Ladha (IRRI) and two agreements: E. Humphreys (Australia) and Raj Gupta (CIMMYT), have been awarded. The first Research
Co-ordination Meeting (RCM) and Training Workshop were held from 4 - 8 March 2002 in Vienna and Seibersdorf.
The second RCM was held in Nanjing, China, 8 - 12 September 2003. After the mid-term review the project was extended until completion in 2006. The third RCM will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh between 11 - 15 July 2005
to enable the participants to have their full reports including the isotopic data of soil water and other measurements and discuss their results
according to the objectives of the project as well as to assess overall progress in implementation of the work plan before project completion in 2006. The fourth and final RCM of the
project will be held on 6-10 November 2006 in Vienna, Austria.
