Enhancing profitability, sustainability, and resilience of rice-based cropping systems by including premium quality rice and intensifying and diversifying cropping systems

To increase the profitability and sustainability of rice-based cropping systems in Bangladesh, sustainable intensification through diversifying high-value and climate-smart crops/varieties is required. Therefore, a multi-location farmer’s participatory cropping systems trial was conducted in two consecutive years in south-west Bangladesh aimed at the profitable and sustainable cropping systems evaluation. The on-farm trial included five rice-based cropping systems such as (i) rice-fallow-rice (R-F-R), (ii) rice-mustard-rice (R-M-R), (iii) rice-lentil-mungbean (R-L-M) (iv) rice-wheat-mungbean (R-W-M) and (v) rice-relay mustard-rice (R-RM-R). The trial was conducted in 60 farmers’ fields in two adjacent districts with similar weather conditions and premium quality rice variety/es was tested in the R-M-R and R-RM-R systems. We evaluated the systems rice equivalent yield (REY), systems profitability, sustainable yield index (SYI), production and land use efficiency, and systems protein and energy outputs. The highest system REY (14.1–14.4 t ha-1) was recorded from the cropping system R-M-R which was similar to the cropping system R-RM-R in 2015/16. The R-M-R cropping systems had 20–25% higher REY than the systems R-F-R which recorded the lowest REY (11.2–11.4 t ha-1). The highest systems net return (1610–1879 USD ha-1) was recorded from the CS R-M-R; however, the highest (1.83–1.99) benefit-cost ratio was involved with CS R-L-M and it was due to lower production cost involvement with this system. The CS R-M-R had the highest SYI (0.84–0.85), followed by R-RM-R and R-L-M, and the lowest value was from R-W-M (0.75–0.77). The highest systems protein, systems energy, and systems profitability were recorded from the CS R-M-R; however, the highest land-use efficiency was recorded from the CS R-RM-R. The study revealed that planting mustard between two rice crops (premium quality varieties with short duration aman), either as a sole crop or with the relay of aman rice, is one of the most profitable options for crop intensification in rice-fallow-rice cropping systems.