Sustainable soil and water conservation practices for maximizing productivity and profitability of rainfed crops in different soil and agro-climatic conditions

Field experiments have been conducted to evaluate the sustainability of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices for crops grown in different soil and climatic conditions in India. The in-situ and ex-situ moisture conservation experiments were conducted in All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) research centers at Faizabad, Kovilpatti, Arjia, SK Nagar, Rewa, Rajkot, Ranchi and Akola to efficiently manage the insitu and ex-situ soil moisture for performance of crops under rainfed condition. A critical assessment is made in this paper to evaluate the sustainability of treatments for maximizing the crop yield, monetary returns over years at different locations. The results indicated the superiority of land management practices, critical irrigation, optimum tillage and fertilizer doses for maximizing the yield and monetary returns of different crops. The sustainability yield index (SYI) values indicated that the soil and water management practices have a moderate sustainability of 30 to 60% for attaining maximum yield of crops grown at different locations. Based on the study, ridge and furrow sowing was found to be superior for pigeonpea (Narendra Arhar-2) at Faizabad; graded bund for sorghum at Kovilpatti; minimum tillage with soil mulch for maize at Arjia; compartment bunds for castor at SK Nagar; stone filter for black gram and pigeonpea at Rewa; 30 cm distance between rows having three rows on the broad bed of 90 cm and furrow of 45 cm for groundnut at Rajkot; opening of furrow after each row (30 40 DAS) together with 50% RDF + FYM @ 5 t ha⁻¹ + PSB + Azotobactor for cotton at Akola; 5 cm irrigation at seeding + 5 cm every week for palak saag, coriander and radish at Ranchi; sorghum + green gram (paired intercropping) with 5 cm irrigation applied at 15 days after effective rain at Arjia; two life saving irrigations + FYM @ 5 t ha⁻¹ for castor at SK Nagar.