Intercropping Under Rice-Based Cropping System: An Experimental Study on Productivity and Profitabil

Rice farmers are mostly involved in monoculture practices. This deprives the land for growing other food crops. Hence, a better alternative of mono/sole cropping is required to overcome this shortcoming. Therefore, a shift from mono cropping to inter/multiple cropping as an excellent strategy for intensifying land use and increasing income and production per unit area and time is appreciated. Production efficiency, economic efficiency and employment generation efficiency of any diversified system is a direct measure of its preferability. Keeping this view in mind, this study deals with the production potential and economic viability of different rabi intercropping in rabi cereal, legume, oilseeds and spices to identify the suitable/remunerative rice (Oryza sativa L.) based cropping systems.



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Kapitel 2.1.4, Total productivity of system with intercrop:

Improving resource utilization in time and space dimension is achieved through inter cropping. Singh and Singh (1983) reported that highest mean land equivalent ratio (1.27) was recorded in wheat and gram intercropping system, followed by wheat + pea (1.19) and wheat + lentil (1.10). Mandal et al. (1986) reported that intercropping of wheat and lentil generated a bonus yield that of wheat and chickpea gave an additional yield without any significant reduction in wheat yield.

Devi et al. (1997) studied that rice-chickpea-maize + cowpea fodder had highest productivity & net profit and the same may be recommended for sustainable cultivation under tarai region & alternative to rice – wheat sequence. Kumar et al. (2001) found that highest rice equivalent productivity (kg ha-1) was obtained in rice-potato + onion, mustard + black gram system having productivity of 53.1 kg day -1 ha-1. Similarly, Singh et al. (2001) found that rice- lentil-maize + fodder cowpea system gave significantly highest rice equivalent yield.

Singh et al. (2004) reported that the rice-lentil-maize + cowpea (f) sequence in flood-prone and rice-wheat-maize + cowpea (f) in semi-deep water situation gave significantly the highest rice equivalent yield (95.82 and 106.7 q ha-1, respectively). Ganvir et al. (2004) reported that among the treatments, castor + groundnut (1:2) gave the highest castor and intercrop yield, total productivity, castor grain yield equivalent and gross monetary returns. Thakur et al. (2004) studied that Sunflower + chickpea (1:1) gave the maximum plant height (100 cm) and land equivalent ratio (1.27). Sunflower + linseed (1:1) gave the highest head size (12.5 cm) and grain yield (1525 kg ha-1). Sunflower + niger (1:1) had the highest number of seeds per head (279) and relative crowding coefficient (3.33). Sunflower + pea (1:1) while, sunflower + pea (1:2) and sunflower + linseed (1:2) gave the highest seed chaffiness (9.2%), sunflower equivalent yield (1101 kg ha-1) and stem girth (5.0 cm), respectively.

Panwar and Rajbir (2004) found that the maximum Brassica napus yield equivalent (25.21 q ha-1) was observed in Brassica napus + chickpea. The yield equivalents obtained under Brassica napus + toria and Brassica napus+ Brassica juncea combinations were significantly less (19.90 and 19.08 q ha-1, respectively) than sole cropping of Brassica napus (21.27 q ha-1).

Padmavathi and Raghavaiah (2004) found that the seed yield of castor (471 kg ha-1) was adversely affected due to intercropping when compared to the sole crop of castor (748 kg ha-1). The castor-equivalent yield was greater when castor was intercropped with cluster bean (1259; 2026 kg ha-1) and cucumber (1536; 2050 kg ha-1) either in 1 or 2 rows, respectively. Sharma et al. (2008) reported that among the 14 rice-based cropping systems tested, rice-potato–onion + maize relay cropping gave the highest mean rice-equivalent yield (30.66 t ha-1 year-1), followed by rice-garlic - maize (30.35 t ha-1 year-1) and rice-potato-onion (27.95 t ha-1 year-1).

2.2, Effect of cropping systems on soil fertility status:

Nambiar and Abrol (1989), Kumar and Yadav (1993) reported that continuously following the same system (rice – wheat sequence) has diverse effect on soil conditions, which ultimately reducing the productivity of the system. Singh and Prasad (1994) found that maximum nitrogen balance was recorded under rice-gram-green gram (128 kg N ha-1) cropping sequence, whereas maximum potassium balance was under rice-maize, black gram (184 kg ha-1). However, phosphorus-balance sheet showed a loss of in all the crop sequences with maximum loss under rice-potato-green gram (214 kg P ha-1) sequence.

Bharadwaj and Omanwar (1994) reported that the highest net gain of K was observed with rice-fenugreek (+97.5 kg ha-1) followed by rice-wheat (+76.2 kg ha-1). The maximum gain of K by rice-fenugreek might be attributed to the direct addition of K to the available K pool of the soil besides the reduction of K fixation and release of K due to interaction of organic matter with clay.

Singh et al. (1996) and Setty and Gowda (1997) observed that the introduction of legume in the system increased soil organic carbon and available soil phosphorus. Singh et al. (1996) and Quayyam and Maniruzzaman (1996) found that the inclusion of legumes makes less demand on the soil resources and at the same time they have capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen in their root nodules and helped in increasing the yield of succeeding rice crop. While, Thakur et al. (1998) reported that cropping system involving pulse crops in the winter (rabi) season had better soil fertility (N, P and K) status than those involving winter cereals. On the other hand,

Kumpawat (2001) studied that productivity of rice – wheat system had shown consistently declining trend. Inclusion of pulses, oilseeds & vegetables in the system has the more beneficial effect than cereal – after cereals. Sharma and Sharma (2002) observed that rice-berseem cropping system resulted in negative balance of nitrogen (144 kg ha-1), phosphorus (23 kg ha-1) and potassium (416 kg ha-1). Rice-mustard-green gram cropping system also resulted in negative balance of 131 kg ha-1 N and 330 kg ha-1 K. Nitrogen and phosphorus balance was found positive in rice-wheat-green gram and rice-potato-green gram cropping system. Whereas, potassium balance was negative in these cropping systems.

Sharma and Sharma (2002) reported that the balance of P was positive in rice-wheat-green gram, rice-potato-sunflower, rice-garlic-maize, rice-marigold- maize + green gram, rice-fenugreek-maize and rice-sunflower-okra cropping system, and it varied from 6.30 kg ha-1 year-1 in rice- fenugreek-maize to 28.20 kg ha-1 year-1 in rice- marigold-maize + green gram cropping system. This shows that the P removed by the crops was less than that the applied to them. However, the other cropping systems showed a negative balance. The maximum deficit of P (31.40 kg-1 ha-1 year-1) was observed in rice-berseem maize + cowpea (f) cropping system, indicating that the quantity of P applied to fodder crops was less than that removal from the soil.

Singh et al. (2004) found that available nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was improved due to legume included in cropping sequence. However, cereal and oilseed included in cropping sequences reduced the content of available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and organic carbon due to higher uptake and lower addition of nutrients in soil.