Evaluation of crop sequences under natural farming, organic and integrated nutrient management production systems
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Date
2023-07-06
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CSK HPKV, Palampur
Abstract
A field experiment entitled “Evaluation of crop sequences under natural farming,
organic and integrated nutrient management production systems” was conducted
during Kharif 2019-20 to Rabi 2020-21 at the Research Farm of Agronomy
Department, College of Agriculture, CSK HPKV, Palampur to explore the production
potential of identified cropping sequences and to monitor the change in soil fertility,
quality and economic viability of the crop sequences. The soil at the experimental site
was silty clay loam with an acidic reaction, medium organic carbon content, available
phosphorus and potassium and low available nitrogen. The experiment consisted with
sixteen treatments and three replications were laid out in split plot design. The
treatments consisted of four production system viz. integrated nutrient management,
organic farming, natural farming, conservation agriculture in main plots and in sub
plots, maize - wheat, maize + cowpea - wheat + gram, maize + soybean-radish-onion
and okra + pole bean - cabbage + garden pea were undertaken. In different cropping
sequences, okra + pole bean – cabbage + pea sequence in combination with integrated
nutrient management came out to be best in terms of maize grain equivalent yield
(33009 kg ha-1
) followed by organic farming system. However, integrated nutrient
management in okra + pole bean – cabbage + pea sequence proved to be more
economical and resulted in low cost of cultivation (₹146095 ha-1
), high gross returns
(₹523945 ha-1
) and highest net returns per rupee invested (₹377850 ha-1
). In terms of
quality, integrated nutrient management production system with maize-wheat
cropping sequence proved to be high in carbohydrate yield, fat yield and in energy
equivalents. Integrated nutrient management with maize + soybean – radish – onion
resulted in high protein yield. Application of conservation agriculture in combination
with maize + cowpea- wheat + gram cropping sequence resulted significant increase
in organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and also improve soil
health of the system as microbial population in the soil i.e., bacteria and fungi were
highest under conservation agriculture production system.