tailieunhanh - Conservation agriculture based tillage options for Rabi crops cultivation in eastern India: Effects on productivity and profitability

In conventional tillage, the traditional practice of opening and turning the soil greatly contributes towards the quick oxidation of organic matter in the soil, quantitative loss of residual soil moisture and high labour and energy input thereby resulting in the poor economic returns for the farmers. However, in some situations tillage causes the soil degradation which results into development of compacted soil having low soil organic carbon (SOC) and restricted drainage. So, the experiment was conducted to specify the tillage practices which can keep protecting the soil healthy for longer period. This experiment was devised to evaluate the effect of long term CA practices like zero tillage and permanent beds on production, productivity and economics of the 5th year rabi season crops as compared to their performance against the business as usual practice ., conventional tillage practice for different Rabi season crops. The experiment had a split plot design, replicated thrice with three main plot treatments viz. zero tillage (ZT), conventional tillage (CT) and permanent bed (PB) and four sub plot treatment viz. wheat, rabi maize, mustard and chickpea. The results revealed that higher grain yield of wheat was recorded under PB (5488 kg ha-1 ) over ZT and CT while, higher grain yield of rabi maize (11279 kg ha-1 ), mustard (970 kg ha-1 ) and chickpea (1936 kg ha-1 ) was recorded in ZT over CT. The highest net return (Rs 64,779 ha-1 ), and B: C ratio () was recorded under ZT which was at par with PB (Rs 61,789 ha-1 and ). Among rabi crops, highest net return was recorded in maize (Rs. 1,00,509 ha-1 ) followed by chickpea (Rs. 57,975 ha1 ) while B:C ratio was highest for chickpea () followed by rabi maize (), wheat () and mustard (). | Conservation agriculture based tillage options for Rabi crops cultivation in eastern India: Effects on productivity and profitability