Productivity and economics of Rice-Lentil cropping system as influenced by foliar application of water soluble plant nutrients employed as a strategy of drought management

The present study was conducted at All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRP-Dryland Agriculture), at Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi for two consecutive years (2014–2016) to assess the impact of foliar spray of plant nutrients on performance of cropping system. Foliar spray of 2% potassium chloride with Zinc and Boron (KCl + Zn + B) was found significantly better in terms of rice yield (2160.62 kg/ha), lentil yield (1158.75 kg/ha) and rice equivalent yield (4836.07 kg/ha) followed by foliar spray of 2% Thiourea (2034.79 kg/ha, 1101.56 kg/ha and 4577.90 kg/ha) as compared to control (1538.83, 822.50 and 3737.26 kg/ha). Similar trends were also observed for gross returns, net returns and B: C ratio, with foliar application of 2% KCl + Zn + B registering maximum gross returns of 74824.98/ha, net returns of 46724.98/ha, B: C ratio of 2.66 and substantially higher RWUE (6.37 kg/ha-mm) among all treatments.