Department of Agronomy, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttaranchal, 263145
1 Present address: Scientist, Project Directorate for Cropping Systems Research, Modipuram, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh 250110
A field experiment was conducted at Crop Research Centre of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, during 1996–97 and 1997–98, to identify the appropriate rice (Oryza sativa L.)-based cropping sequences for sustainable productivity and profitability under foothills of Himalayas. Rice as base crop was sequenced in 10 feasible crop sequences, viz. wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend. Fiori & Paol.)-rice, chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)-rice, lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus)-rice, field pea (Pisum sativum L.)-rice, wheat-mungbean (Phaseolus radiatus L.) green-manure-rice, wheat-sesbania (Sesbania aculeata Pers.) green-manure-rice, wheat-maize (Zea mays L.) + cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] fodde.-rice (Oryza sativa L.), chickpea-maize + cowpea fodder-rice, lentil-maize + cowpea fodder-rice and field pea-maize + cowpea fodder-rice sequence. The green-manuring of sesbania and mungbean in rice-wheat system gave an additional rice-equivalent yield 1.11 and 0.9 tonnes/ha over wheat-rice, respectively, and showed maximum land-use efficiency (90.95%). Further chickpea-rice sequence (10.88 tonnes/ha) showed its superiority to all other sequences having 2 crops. Among 300% cropping intensity, sequence chickpea-maize + cowpea fodder-rice (13.90 tonnes/ha) proved most efficient in term of rice-equivalent yield, production efficiency (38.09 kg/ha) and mean economic returns (Rs 43,992/ha), while sequence wheat-maize + cowpea fodder-rice was highest carbohydrate (9.68 tonnes/ha) and chemical energy (50.51 K cal x 10−6/ha) producer among all sequences.
Rice-based cropping sequences, Productivity and economics, Rice-equivalent yield, Energy production efficiency
