The conventional puddled transplanted rice-conventional tilled wheat system is associated with high water, labour and energy requirements, leading to reduced resource use efficiency and sustainability concerns. Resource conservation technologies like ZTDSR, surface and sub surface drip irrigation, sesbania brown manuring and residue retention offer potential alternatives for improving crop growth in the rice-wheat cropping system. A field experiment was conducted at RLBCAU, Jhansi to evaluate the effect of different crop establishment and irrigation practices on growth of rice and succeeding wheat. The experiment was laid out in RBD comprising 11 treatments and replicated thrice. Growth parameters were recorded at different growth stages of rice and wheat. In rice, TPR-ZTW recorded higher plant height, tiller count and dry matter accumulation remained at par with the SDI and SSDI ZTDSR+ BM-ZTW and SDI and SSDI ZTDSR-30% residue retention ZTW. In succeeding wheat, SDI ZTDSR-30% residue retention ZTW recorded higher plant height, tiller count and dry matter accumulation and remained at par with SDI and SSDI ZTDSR+ BM-ZTW and SSDI ZTDSR-30% residue retention ZTW. These findings indicate that drip-based irrigation practices integrated with ZTDSR, ZTW, sesbania brown manuring and residue retention can sustain crop growth comparable to transplanted rice while improving the growth performance of succeeding wheat in the rice-wheat cropping system.