Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, ANGRAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad - 500 030, India.
The practice of puddling benefits rice cultivation but it adversely affects the succeeding upland crops by altering the physical, physico-chemical and microbial properties of the soil. The key to successful management of upland crops in rice fallows lies in maintenance of optimum plant stand by manipulating the soil tilth by proper tillage practices, seeding and stand establishment techniques like seed priming. Priming is a pre-sowing practice by which seeds are allowed to imbibe moisture or liquids followed by drying. Many experiments proved that primed seeds ensure proper germination and good stand of many crops especially upland crops grown in rice fallows, than non-primed seeds. The information on tillage and seed priming effects on upland crops in rice based cropping systems has been reviewed hereunder.
