The sustainability of global agriculture at higher productivity level is a concern owing to climate change, serious environmental footprints, dipping factor productivity and shrinking availability of natural resources, especially. The situation is worsening in the ‘Food Bowl of India’—Indo‐Gangetic plains (IGP) by several amalgamated factors, such as declining groundwater, unpredictable precipitation owing to climate change and cultivation of heavy water duty crops. To neutralise these issues, a field experiment was executed for the period 2019–2021 to assess the efficacy of indigenous hydrogels (P‐hydrogel and Superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118) and their application methods viz., seed treatment, slurry application and soil application on crop yield and water productivity, soil moisture dynamics and profitability in a soybean–wheat cropping system under irrigation and rainfed conditions. In both study years (2019–2020 and 2020–2021), due to higher seed germination percentage, irrigation application together with seed treatment and slurry application of superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118 improved system productivity by 8.1%–26.7% and system water productivity by 17.6%–33.8% over control. Wheat grain yield was enhanced by 8.0% (2019–2020) to 32.2% (2020–2021) due to superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118 hydrogel with 10 cm lesser use of irrigation water compared with control (no‐hydrogel). Soil moisture content in 0–15 cm soil layer was also found higher by 1.8%–2.4% in superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118 and P‐hydrogel slurry‐applied plots. Therefore, higher gross profitability (31.8%), net profitability (89.8%) and B:C (26.9%) in wheat could be attributed to increased crop yields when seeds were treated with superabsorbent polymer hydrogel‐1118. Therefore, the utilisation of modified hydrogel application, in the form of seed treatment (seed coating) and slurry application has demonstrated improvement in seed germination, crop yield and water productivity and made soybean–wheat cultivation more economical. This approach presents a feasible solution to achieving a viable production system of soybean and wheat crops by reducing irrigation amounts in the IGP of India, as well as other comparable ecological places worldwide.

中文翻译：

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通过南亚半干旱地区大豆-小麦系统改良农艺实践揭示超吸水性水凝胶的功效


由于气候变化、严重的环境足迹、要素生产率下降和自然资源供应量减少，全球农业在较高生产力水平上的可持续性令人担忧。由于地下水下降、气候变化导致的降雨量不可预测以及高耗水作物的种植等多种因素的综合作用，“印度的粮仓”——印度恒河平原（IGP）的情况正在恶化。为了解决这些问题，在 2019 年至 2021 年期间进行了一项田间实验，以评估本土水凝胶（P-水凝胶和高吸水性聚合物水凝胶-1118）的功效及其应用方法，即种子处理、浆料施用和土壤施用灌溉和雨养条件下大豆-小麦种植系统的作物产量和水生产率、土壤湿度动态和盈利能力。在这两个研究年（2019-2020年和2020-2021年），由于种子发芽率较高，灌溉应用与种子处理和高吸水性聚合物水凝胶-1118浆料应用相结合，将系统生产力提高了8.1%-26.7%，系统水生产力提高了8.1%-26.7%。超出对照 17.6%–33.8%。由于采用超吸水性聚合物水凝胶-1118水凝胶，与对照（无水凝胶）相比，灌溉水用量减少了10厘米，小麦籽粒产量提高了8.0%（2019-2020年）至32.2%（2020-2021年）。在使用超吸水性聚合物水凝胶-1118和P-水凝胶浆料的地块中，0-15厘米土层的土壤含水量也增加了1.8%-2.4%。因此，小麦较高的毛利率（31.8%）、净利润（89.8%）和B:C（26.9%）可归因于用超吸水性聚合物水凝胶-1118处理种子时作物产量的增加。 因此，以种子处理（种子包衣）和浆料施用的形式使用改性水凝胶应用已证明可以提高种子发芽率、作物产量和水分生产率，并使大豆-小麦种植更加经济。这种方法提供了一种可行的解决方案，通过减少印度 IGP 以及全球其他类似生态地区的灌溉量，实现大豆和小麦作物的可行生产系统。