**4. Conclusions**

The result reveals that optimum height of bed for better maize crop stand shall range between 150 and 230 mm with a top width of 350 mm bed at a row spacing of 675 mm. The planter plate design geometry has an important role in achieving accurate plant to plant spacing. The yield for inclined and vertical plate mechanism ranged between 4.96–7.71 t ha<sup>1</sup> and 6.75–8.61 t ha<sup>1</sup> respectively. The saving in water was 9.68–23.69% with bed heights ranging between 150 and 290 mm. The maximum saving in water of 38.85 cm per ha was found for bed height of 150 mm (for 2 rows on as compared to flat planting method. The precision indices for inclined and vertical plate mechanism varied between 4.63–6.74% and 6.35–11.82% respectively. The pneumatic raised bed and flat planter recorded highest yield as 8.61 t ha<sup>1</sup> and 8.34 t ha<sup>1</sup> respectively. The energy productivity was found maximum for pneumatic raised bed planter, pneumatic flat planter as 0.14 kg MJ<sup>1</sup> Maize residue can be collected with balers for use in biomass co generation plants, bio CNG plants, biomass pallet industry as maize crops residue has higher gross calorific value (17.0 MJ kg<sup>1</sup> ) than paddy crop residue (14.5 MJ kg<sup>1</sup> ).

Maize crop residue can be used to promote silage industry as farmers usually require silage for feeding animals. The maize crop sowing, weeding and harvesting operations are fully mechanized whereas in case of rice crop manual transplanting is mostly followed in rice growing regions though harvesting is done with combine harvesters. Also the in-situ management of paddy crop residue is energy intensive and maize crop residue can be easily chopped and incorporated with disc harrows, rotary tillers or super seeders facilitating timely and easy sowing of next crops. Among plant-based foods, rice is largest contributor of green house gas emissions, because it can grow in water, so many farmers flood their fields to kill weeds, creating ideal conditions for certain bacteria that emit methane. Rice produces 12 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector, followed by wheat (5%) and sugar cane (2%) [83]. Although burning of straw residues emits large amounts of CO2, this component of the smoke is not considered as net GHG emissions and only concludes the annual carbon cycle that has started with photosynthesis. At constant straw moisture of 10%, the mass-scaled emission factors (EFm) were 4.51 g CH4 and 0.069 g N2O per kg dry weight (kg<sup>1</sup> dw) of straw. This corresponds to 1.05% and 0.29% of the total C and N released from straw burning, respectively and subsequent area-scaled emissions (Ea) that were 10.04 kg CH4 ha<sup>1</sup> and 0.154 kg N2O ha<sup>1</sup> as averages for both seasons [60]. Methane in the Earth's atmosphere is a strong greenhouse gas with a global warming potential (GWP) 84 times greater than CO2 in a 20-year time frame. Methane primarily leaves the atmosphere through oxidization, forming water vapor and carbon dioxide. So, not only does methane contribute to global warming directly but also, indirectly through the release of carbon dioxide. Moreover CH4 production from rice fields and burning of rice residues also creates breathing problems to local people. The puddled rice also hinders natural recharging of underground water during rainy season (especially *monsoon* period) due to presence of hard pan beneath soil. However strategically diversifying rice area partially to maize crop especially in *Kharif* season can help maintain underground water as well as facilitate recharging also and reducing GHG emissions from its cultivation and residue burning. Maize crop can be sown in *Kharif* (period June-July to October) to diversify rice, *Rabi* season (October to November sowing and harvesting April to June), Spring (sowing-January end to February and harvesting in June-July) and can also be intercropped with Populus deltoids in flood, heavy rainfall prone areas. *Rabi* season or winter maize takes more time to mature as in winter growth of maize is slow but it is less infested with insects, pest, weeds and ensures more efficient use of resources, higher yield than *Kharif* maize and also allows maize-maize system intensification. The rice is grown mainly in *Kharif* season, therefore maize crop can be grown in *Kharif* season to save water. Moreover winter and spring maize have irrigation requirement higher than *Kharif* crop. Also by changing metering plates of pneumatic raised bed planter and inclined plate planter along with some adjustments these planters can be used for sowing of wide row crops like peas, gram, canola etc and narrow row crops like onion, radish, carrot etc. in subsequent winter (*Rabi)* season. With appropriate raised bed maize planter selection, maize sowing operation can be done with precision and lower energy input while maintaining crop yield and saving energy and irrigation water especially for arid and tropical regions. More if agroforestry concept is scaled up, it will help improve water quality, as trees improve water quality by slowing rains as it falls to earth, and helping it soak into the soil. Trees then serve as natural sponge, collecting and filtering rainfall and releasing it slowly into streams and rivers. Trees are the most effective land cover with various benefits such as maintenance of water quality, recharging of water table, reduced drinking water treatment costs, removal of nitrogen and phosphorus leaching from adjacent agricultural land uses *Scaling Mechanization and Profitability in Maize Cultivation through Innovative Maize… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111766*

into streams by acting as a filtering sediment and also tree can help control the effects of climate change by capturing green house gases and controlling the rise in temperature of earth. Moreover less water requiring crops like pulse, sugarcane, maize, etc. in place of rice will need less irrigation water and more trees can help lower down the environment temperature and more rainfalls. Thus, all these will lead to less pumping of water and saving of underground water as well as natural recharging of underground water.
