Weeds response and control efficiency, greengram productivity and resource-use efficiency under a conservation agriculture-based maize-wheat-greengram system

There has been a growing trend for achieving sustainable crop intensification without jeopardizing land productivity through conservation agriculture (CA). The CA has paved the way for cultivation of pulses in diverse cropping systems. A field experiment was conducted at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during 2018-19 and 2019-20 cropping cycle with summer greengram in maize-wheat system to assess the effects of CA on weed interference, crop productivity and resource use efficiency. Results showed that CA-based practices with residue retention resulted in a considerable reduction in weed density and biomass when compared to conventional tillage (CT). Greengram yield parameters in CA were higher than in CT. The permanent broad bed (PBB) with residue retention (R) and recommended 100% N application (100N) (∼PBB+R+100N) gave ∼56% higher greengram grain yield than CT with considerably higher water productivity, nutrient-use efficiency and net returns. The adoption of CA practice involving PBB+R in greengram led to higher weed control efficiency and was more productive, remunerative and irrigation water-use efficient. Thus, it could potentially boost up the greengram productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency under maize-wheat-greengram system in north-western Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India.