Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
tributaries spreading all over the district. It may also be noted that the sali season mainly
coincides with the time of heavy rainfall in the district, i.e., May/June-July/August due to which
rice crop were badly affected and there occurs significant reduction in the production. Keeping
the importance of above facts in mind, the present study was conducted with the hypothesis
that productivity and profitability of rainfed rice fallow systems can be improved by growing
rabi crops as second crop with the application of supplemental irrigation during dry spells only
with the objectives: i) To study the effect of rice varieties on the performance of subsequent
rabi crops, ii) To find out the efficiency of harvested rainwater on productivity of rabi crops.
Methodology
The field experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Regional Agricultural
Research Station, North Lakhimpur, AAU, Assam in collaboration with All India Coordinated
Research Project for Dryland Agriculture, Biswanath Chariali centre during 2018-2019, 2019-
2020, 2020-2021 in randomized block design. It is situated at 101 m above mean sea level
(MSL) with 26°48' and 27 o 53' Northern latitude and 93 o 42' and 94 o 20' East longitude. The
texture of the soil of the experimental field was clay loam with a pH of 4.89 and organic carbon
of 0.69. The field capacity of the soil is 23.41% and wilting point is 5.10%, soil was medium
in available nitrogen (360.20 kg ha -1 ), available phosphorus (23.45 kg ha -1 ), and available
potassium (170.65 kg ha -1 ). The rice-based cropping system was evaluated in a randomized
block design with two factor combinations involving four replications. The factors were sowing
dates (second crops preceded by medium duration rice varieties and second crops preceded by
long duration rice varieties) and types of irrigation (flood irrigation and lifesaving sprinkler
irrigation during dry spells only). The age of seedlings were 25 days and 60 days for medium
duration rice variety (Kanaklata) and long duration rice variety (Gitesh) respectively. The
individual plot size was 50 m 2 (10 m × 5 m) with a gross area of 2500 m 2 and the rabi crops
grown were toria (TS-67), niger (GA-10), pea (Kaveri Improved). The seed rate of toria, niger,
and pea were 10 kg ha -1 , 8 kg ha -1 , and 50 kg ha -1 respectively. Post harvesting of the kharif
crops (medium and long duration rice varieties), the land preparation was done by tractordrawn
plough followed by harrowing and levelling. The spacings were maintained at 25 cm x
10 cm (Toria), 25cm x 5 cm (Niger), and 30cm x 10cm (Pea) row-to-row and plant-to-plant
respectively. The fertilizer was applied as per recommendation of the package of practices
(POP) of Assam in terms of Urea, SSP, and MOP. The crops were sown in the second fortnight
of November and first fortnight of December. The daily meteorological data (rainfall) during
the period of experimentation was collected at the meteorological observatory of the station,
RARS North Lakhimpur, Assam Agricultural University, Lakhimpur. The soil properties were
analysed separately after the harvesting of all the rabi crops. The water was applied as life
saving irrigation during the occurrence of 10-days dry spell only through hose pipes and
sprinkler irrigation systems from the harvested rainwater during the rabi crops only. The yield
Resilience through land and water management interventions, water management and governance
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