Optimizing Food‐Energy‐Water‐Carbon Synergies Through Conservation Tillage and Organic Nutrient Management in Eastern Himalayan Rice–Pea System

ABSTRACT Balancing economic returns and environmental outcomes is a global priority, making the development of a sustainable bioeconomy vital for greening agriculture and Sustainable Development Goals‐linked targets. Thus, a 5‐year field study was undertaken to develop a robust tillage and nutrient management model to improve system productivity and energy use efficiency while reducing the carbon and water footprints of the organic rice–pea system. Three tillage practices viz., zero tillage (ZT), reduced tillage (RT), and conventional tillage (CT), and four organic nutrient management practices (ONM), that is, ONM1 (FYM at 8 Mg ha −1 for rice and 5 Mg ha −1 for pea), ONM2 (FYM at 12 Mg ha −1 for rice and 6 Mg ha −1 for pea), ONM3 (vermicompost at 3 Mg ha −1 for rice and 1.5 Mg ha −1 for pea), ONM4 (FYM at 6 Mg ha −1 + vermicompost at 1.5 Mg ha −1 for rice and FYM at 3 Mg ha −1 + vermicompost at 0.5 Mg ha −1 for pea) were tested in a thrice‐replicated split‐plot design. The system productivity of the rice–pea system was the highest under ZT (8.65 Mg ha −1 ) and ONM 4 (9.34 Mg ha −1 ). The ONM4 resulted in 37.8% higher system productivity and 36.6% higher benefit–cost ratio over ONM1. The ZT and ONM4 were the most energy‐efficient practices for the rice–pea system, registering 50.32% and 36.59% higher energy productivity, respectively, over CT and ONM 1 . Furthermore, the ZT and ONM4 had the lowest water footprint. The ZT and ONM 4 curtailed the CF on the energy scale by 33.63% and 16.48% over CT and ONM 1 on unit economic gain, respectively. Moreover, the ZT + ONM 4 enhances the eco‐efficiency index by 3.14‐fold over CT + ONM1. Hence, ZT + ONM4 is a carbon cum energy‐efficient and economically robust strategy for the sustainable organic rice–pea farming in the Eastern Himalayas.