A field experiment was conducted during 2005 – 2006 at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu with nine cropping systems. The systems were evaluated for their system productivity, economics and production efficiency. Lablab - sesamum - brinjal cropping sequence registered the highest total cotton equivalent yield (12,043 kg ha−1) and system productivity (32.99 kg ha−1 day−1). Economic analysis revealed that the maximum net income (Rs. 44,353 ha−1) was under the maize - cowpea - tomato sequence followed by the other sequences into which vegetable crops were included. This system also recorded the highest economic production efficiency (Rs. 121.52 ha−1 day−1), which indicates the need for integration of vegetable crops due to higher per day productivity over the other crops. Thus maize - cowpea - tomato sequence was identified as the most biologically efficient and profitable cropping system followed by beet root - green gram - maize + cowpea sequence.
Production potential, Economic analysis, Cropping systems
