Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges & Opportunities
during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Methodology
The study was based on on-farm trials carried out at five locations in NICRA village under
Kathua District during the rabi 2021-22 using cv. WH 1080. The experiment was laid out in
randomized block design with three replications, consisting of three treatments. The experiment
comprised of 3 treatments: T1- Farmer practice (sowing after rainfall), T2- After harvest plough
and heavy planking, T3- After harvest plough and heavy planking + mulching with maize straw.
It represents the sub-tropical zone. Most of the farmers of this region are small and marginal
farmers, are economically poor and practice subsistence farming. Under such conditions, due to
unfavourable climatic conditions the productivity of crops is much below the national average
productivity. District Kathua of Jammu and Kashmir is located on the northern side of the state.
It lies between 32 0 00’ 17’ to 32 0 00’ 55’ N latitude and 75 0 00’ 70’ to 76 0 00’ 16’ E longitude. It
has a total geographical area of 2.65 lakh hectare, out of which 1.27 lakh ha is gross sown area
and 64829 ha (41/%) is net sown area. The soils of this area are deficit in organic carbon, humus
and low in available nitrogen, phosphorous and medium in potassium. Other major constraints
leading to yield gaps are low availability of quality seeds organic manures, bio pesticides, nonstandardization
and non-adoption of improved production practices. Therefore, an attempt has
been made in which moisture has been conserved for timely sowing of wheat crop on Kandi
areas.
Results
Results indicated that the integration of plough and heavy planking with maize straw mulching
resulted in higher grain and straw yield of wheat crop at all the location of OFTs in comparison
to farmer practice. Combination of after harvest plough and heavy planking + mulching with
maize straw resulted in significantly higher yield of wheat (38.20 q ha -1 ) as compared to after
harvest plough and heavy planking alone (34.4 q ha -1 ) and farmer practice (30.0 q ha -1 ).
Adoption of improved sowing technology increased yield by 27 per cent over farmers’ practices.
Significant increase in grain yield of wheat crop with integration of plough and heavy planking
with maize straw mulching might be due to timely sowing of wheat crop during untimely
rainfalls. It was further revealed that higher rates of mulch conserved more soil moisture by
providing better cover to the non-cropped area. Mulch application had also significant effect on
emergence count. Increase in emergence count with high rates of mulches is attributed to soil
moisture conservation. Mulch cover reduces evaporation losses from soil surfaces thus
increasing moisture availability for germinating seeds. This contributed to better crop stand and
this effect is reflected in the number of total tillers per unit area. Similarly, Sandal and Acharya
(1997) investigated different tillage practices in a maize-wheat cropping sequence and reported
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