Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
T1-48 P-1582
Land Configuration Management for Enhancing the Crop Productivity
Sreedhar Chauhan and D . Mohan Das
Agricultural Research Station, Adilabad, PJTSAU, Telangana
There is a need for in-situ soil and water conservation and proper drainage technology in deep
black soils of the Northern Telangana Zone of Telangana, as the receipt of annual rainfall is
1050 mm leads to crop damage regularly during the grand crop growth period either due to
excess or deficit rains. Land configuration techniques such as ridges and furrows and broad
bed and furrow (BBF) can play a vital role to overcome soil-related problems by providing
easy and uniform germination as well as good growth and development of plants (Ramesh et
al., 2020). To tackle the abiotic problems, a field experiment is carried out at Agricultural
Research Station, Adilabad (PJTSAU) during Kharif, 2018-19 to 2020-21 to study the
performance of various land configurations concerning moisture conservation, the effect of
various land configurations on the growth and yield of various crops and cropping systems and
the economics of various treatment combinations.
Methodology
Season: Kharif, 2018-19 to 2020-21; Soil type: BC soil; Design: Strip-plot, No. of treatments:
15; No. of replication: 03; Varieties: Soybean - Basara; Redgram-PRG 176 (Ujwala) & Cotton-
RCH-659 (BG-II hybrid); Spacings: Soybean-45 x 10 cm; Redgram-3.15/3.6 m x 0.20 m &
Cotton-90 x 60 cm; Method of sowing: Dibbling of single seed per spot at a uniform depth of
3-5 cm; RDF: PJTSAU recommendations. The treatments consisted of 3 main plots (Land
configuration practices; L 1 - Flatbed system; L 2 - BBF system & L 3 - Ridges & furrow system)
and 5 Subplots (Cropping sequences; C1 – Soybean – Chickpea; C 2 – Soybean – Rabi sorghum;
C 3 – Soybean – Safflower; C 4 – Soybean + Pigeonpea (7:1) & C 5 – Cotton + Pigeonpea (4:1).
Results
Among the three land configuration practices (BBF, ridge & furrow, and traditional method of
cultivation), crops sown on the BBF method recorded higher soybean seed equivalent yield
(4786 kg ha -1 ) followed by ridge & furrow method of sowing (4121 kg ha -1 ) and flatbed
methods (3670 kg ha -1 ). BBF method facilitated proper drainage in heavy rainfall periods as
well as moisture conservation during drought situations and recorded 5.5 kg/ha-mm RUE.
Similarly, among the different cropping sequences tested (soybean-chickpea, soybean-rabi
jowar, soybean–safflower, soybean + pigeonpea, cotton + pigeonpea), the traditional
intercropping system, cotton + pigeonpea (4:1) was found to be superior (4427 kg ha -1 of
soybean SEY) and found at par with soybean-chickpea sequence crop (4307 kg ha -1 SEY).
However, Soybean-rabi jowar/safflower (or) soybean + pigeonpea (7:1) recorded lower values
Resilience through land and water management interventions, water management and governance
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