<div>Background: The field experiment was conducted during 2018-19 experimental farm of Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, CSK HPKV, Palampur (H.P.), India. The experiment comprised of ten treatments (maize-wheat, maize-wheat + gobhi sarson, dhaincha-cabbage-frenchbean, sunhemp-vegetable pea-frenchbean, maize + soybean chickpea + linseed, rice-wheat + gram, hybrid sorghum + hybrid bajra-oats + sarson (hybrid), hybrid sorghum + hybrid bajra-ryegrass + berseem, babycorn-broccoli-frenchbean and okra-turnip-tomato) which was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. 
 
Methods: The present investigation was conducted during October 2018-October 2019 (Kharif and Rabi seasons) at an elevation of 1100 m amsl at a latitude of 32&deg;04&rsquo;N and longitude of 76&deg;35&rsquo; E at Bhadiarkar Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, CSK HPKV, Palampur, Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The soil of the experimental area falls in the order of Alfisols with Paleudalf as the great group as per the Udic Moisture Regime. During kharif and rabi season the crop varieties were applied with the recommended dose of N, P2O5 and K2O (kg ha-1). The source of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) were urea, single super phosphate and muriate of potash. 
 
Result: In terms of food for human consumption, highest yield was obtained under the okra-turnip-tomato cropping sequence followed by dhaincha-cabbage-frenchbean and sunhemp-vegetable pea-frenchbean. While in terms of fodder yield, highest was obtained under hybrid sorghum + hybrid bajra-oats + sarson (hybrid) cropping sequence followed by hybrid sorghum + hybrid bajra-ryegrass + berseem. Highest maize grain equivalent yield was obtained with okra-turnip-tomato crop sequence. All other treatments remained superior in comparison to the maize-wheat crop sequence. Maize + soybean-chickpea + linseed emerged to be the best treatment with the highest benefit cost ratio. The treatment comprising okra-turnip-tomato sequence also proved to be the second-best treatment followed by hybrid sorghum + hybrid bajra-oats + sarson (hybrid). Sunhemp-vegetable pea-frenchbean recorded the highest uptake of the available nutrients from soil which was followed by babycorn-broccoli-frenchbean. There was net loss of available nutrients although the loss was less in the sequences with multiple crops during the year. The treatments had no significant effect on the pH and organic carbon content of the soil.</div>

​Effect of Different Crop Sequences on Soil Nutrient Status, Nutrient Uptake and Crop Yield in Western Himalayas of India

This study was conducted during the year 2006-07 and 2007-08 to determine how energy balances of crop production are affected by cotton-chickpea cropping sequence and different sources of organic and inorganic fertilizer under the semi-arid conditions of western Maharashtra. &nbsp;The energy input and output, energy balance per unit input ratio and the energy output/input ratio were varied significantly individually to cotton and chickpea during both the years. However on pooled mean basis to &nbsp;cotton-chickpea cropping sequence, the energy input, output and energy balance were significantly higher by application of (RDF) Recommended Dose of Fertilizer &nbsp;according to Soil Test Crop Response (STCR) equation to cotton and 100% RDF to chickpea. Significantly higher energy balance per unit input and energy output per input ratio (6.46 MJ/ha and 7.46) &nbsp;were recorded &nbsp;by 100% RDF + 10 FYM/ha to cotton and it was 5.72 MJ/ha and 6.72 by 100% RDF to chickpea. Application of RDF according to STCR equation ( &nbsp; 64960 and 3.07) to cotton and 100% RDF ( &nbsp; &nbsp;46744 and 2.23) application to chickpea registered higher net monetary returns and benefit cost ratio respectively.

Crop energy balance study of cotton-chickpea cropping sequence under organic and inorganic fertilizer sources in western Maharashtra

Despite being a major source of livelihood, &nbsp;rice cultivation in the plains of the north-east region of India is under stress due to depletion of native nutrient reserves, emergence of multi-nutrient deficiencies and &nbsp;consequent &nbsp;decline &nbsp;in &nbsp;factor &nbsp;productivity &nbsp;of &nbsp;applied &nbsp;nutrients. With the aim to enhance productivity and to develop efficient fertilizer management strategies for the region, the authors discuss the status of post harvest soil properties and on-farm crop response to plant nutrients in rice-rice sequence under the climatic situation of Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam. Results revealed that the recommended dose of NPK fertilizers along with 5 Kg ZnSO4 application not only increases the yield of rice-rice sequence but also enhances the post harvest fertility status of soil.

Soil fertility and on-farm crop response to NPK and Zn fertilization in rice-rice cropping sequence of Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: Land configuration decides the effectiveness of crop management practices and major land configuration practice includes raised bed preparation, ridges and furrows, broad bed furrows etc. The farmers&rsquo; practice of sowing in flatbed without proper land configuration, leads to poor growth and development of crops. A large portion of crop residues is burnt by the farmers in the fields to clear the left-over straw and stubbles. Conservation agriculture involving crop residue management can give new direction for sustaining productivity. The development issue of rainfed agriculture assumes critical importance in India due to slow growth and its impact on livelihood security of rural poor in India. Changes in crop establishment method in rice have significant implications in performing farm operations like tillage, seedbed preparations, transplanting, weeding and other intercultural operations including water management. The current study aimed to study the BF methods as land configuration including crop residue management in rainfed eco system in direct seeded rice based cropping system. 
 
Methods:&nbsp;In the field experiment during 2016-17 and 2017-18, different size of bed of Broad bed Furrow (BBF) including Flatbed was made manually consisting four replication. After final land preparation the experimental field was divided into four blocks and each block was divided in to six main plots to allocate the six soil moisture conservation practices randomly, for growing summer (direct seeded ahu rice), kharif (green gram) crops. The main plots were again divided in to four sub-plots to allocate the rabi crops randomly following a split-plot design. Incorporation of crop residues was done in the plots as per treatments. 
 
Result: The investigation resulted better performance of both the size of BBF beds as compared to flatbed method in respect of yield attributes and yield of the crops studied. Among the BBF, 60-30 cm size bed showed better than the BBF 120-30 cm size beds. The residue incorporation plots were shown comparatively better result than no residue incorporation treatments. The present study will be a contribution to the study of BBF particularly in pulse crops due to heavy rainfall received during kharif season in Assam.</div>

Influence of Different Moisture Conservation Practices and Crop Sequence on Direct Seeded Rice based Cropping System in Rainfed Ecosystem of Assam, India

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: Greengram based cropping sequences are followed in semi-arid parts of Karnataka, India. But, due to increasingly erratic and changing monsoon patterns under current climates the sustainability and profitability of these sequences are becoming more uncertain. Hence, a modeling study using seasonal analysis tool of DSSAT model was taken up to identify the most reliable sequence. 
 
Methods: Field experiments were carried out from 2015-2018 to calibrate and validate DSSAT model for four crop cultivars (greengram, chickpea, wheat and sorghum) under rainfed condition on deep black soils and then Sequential Analysis Tool of DSSAT model was run for 32 years (1985-2016) for three cropping sequences i.e., greengram-sorghum, greengram-wheat and greengram-chickpea. The simulated output analysis was done using yield, number of years crop failed during different seasons and the B:C ratio of each sequence.&nbsp; 
 
Result: Out of 32 years greengram crop, grown during kharif, failed only once whereas, during rabi season wheat, sorghum and chickpea failed seven, six and five years, respectively. Greengram-chickpea sequence recorded the highest B:C ratio (2.38) followed by greengram-sorghum (2.25) and greengram-wheat (1.76). Considering chances of crop failure and B:C ratio greengram-chickpea sequence was found to be the most reliable and remunerative system under rainfed condition of Karnataka during current climate.</div>

<div style="text-align:justify">Greengram Based Cropping Sequence for Sustainability under Changing Climate in Semi-arid Part of Karnataka, India</div>

<div>Background: Freshwater in sufficient quantity and adequate quality is a prerequisite for human societies and natural ecosystems. To adequately feed 9.3 billion people in 2050, consumptive water use (i.e. transpired water) by all food and fodder crops needs to increase from its present estimated level of 7000 km3/year to 12,586 km3/year. However, fresh water resources are increasingly getting scarce because of increased competition among a multitude of users. Getting agriculture to perform with progressively smaller allocation of renewable water resources will remain a challenge on global scale. To meet the challenge there is an urgent need to improve the crop water productivity to ensure the sustainability of agriculture. 
 
Methods: An experiment was carried out at village Menawali, Hanumangarh, Rajasthan during both kharif and rabi seasons to assess productivity, economics, N-uptake and water use of different crops. An area of 187 ha comprising 25 farmers irrigated by common irrigation channels were selected to collect the information. The information required i.e. soil, crop management, growth, phonological, yields, water balance, N-uptake and water use efficiency of each crops were collected from 15 farmers. Bt-cotton and clusterbean of kharif and wheat and Indian mustard in rabi were prominent crops, cotton-wheat, cotton-mustard, clusterbean-wheat and clusterbean-mustard were major cropping sequences of the study region. 
 
Result: In kharif season, Bt-cotton gave higher economic yields than clusterbean and amongst rabi season crops, economic yields of wheat and mustard were 4255, 1778 kg/ha, respectively. The economic yield of cropping sequences varied from 3741-6514 kg/ha and were higher for cotton-wheat (6218 kg/ha), intermediate for clusterbean-wheat (5785 kg/ha) and lower for cotton-mustard (3741 kg/ha) and clusterbean-mustard (3308 kg/ha). The cotton-wheat (₹1181.2 mm) sequence had highest water use. Clusterbean-wheat cropping system recorded highest water productivity (16.5 kg/ha mm) followed by clusterbean-mustard (14.9 kg/ha mm). The clusterbean-mustard (₹456/ha mm) cropping sequence was most profitable and fetched highest net return followed by clusterbean-wheat (₹383/ha mm).</div>

Assessing Crop and Water Productivity Performance of Different Crops and Cropping Systems

<div>Background: Intensive rice cultivation for longer periods continuously resulted in poor soil fertility. Inorganic fertilizers along with integrated and judicious use of different organic sources like FYM, vermicompost, green manure etc. could be an effective choice for enhancing crop yield. A synergistic effect on crop yield is reported through common use of fertilizer and organics which also improve soil fertility. The residual effects of organic manures applied to the preceding crops can be available to succeeding crop. Therefore, this experiments was planned to throw light on the use integrated nutrients through organic and inorganic sources on rice and its residual effect on succeeding greengram. 
 
Methods: A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of integrated nutrient management on rice-greengram cropping sequence at Navsari Agricultural University, Gujarat during 2012-15. Five nutrient combinations were evaluated in randomized block design for rice and its residual effect on productivity on succeeding greengram was studied with three fertilizer levels in split plot design.&nbsp; 
 
Result: Application of general recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) to rice has increased growth, yield, quality, economics and improved soil properties and the residual effect to succeeding greengram have also gave significantly higher greengram seed yield and other important parameters and this was succeeded by application of 75% RDF through chemical fertilizer + 25% RDF through vermicompost. Among different levels of fertilizers to greengram, application of 100% RDF gave highest greengram seed yield, economics and soil parameters over other two levels.</div>

<div>Effect of Integrated Nutrient Management on Rice-Greengram Cropping Sequence</div>

<div>Background: This study is meant to examine the energy requirement and energy input- output of different cropping sequences&nbsp;.The crucial objective to conduct experiment to understand energy efficiency using inputs and outputs which were disbursed in cropping sequences. Hence, it is need of the hour to identify the most remunerative and cost effective cropping sequence with high energy efficient for UGP of India.</div>

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<div>Methods: This study was carried out at the research farm of ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research, Modipuram, during 2017-2021.The divergent cropping sequences viz.&nbsp;sugarcane-ratoon-wheat (CS1); rice-wheat-dhaincha (CS2); pigeonpea +maize-chickpea-okra (CS3); maize-berseem-black gram (CS4); sorghum-mustard-green gram (CS5) and Napier+cowpea/berseem (CS6) were compared in reference to curtail higher energy inputs&nbsp; through selected alternate cropping sequences. The obtained energy values were calculated by multiplying the amount of inputs and outputs by using energy conversion factors. 
 
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<div>Result: Maximum inputs energy consumed by sugarcane crop alone (33.14x103 MJ ha-1). Results shown that irrigation, seed, fertilizers and diesel required higher energy for the completion of cultural operations. However, higher inputs energy was used in irrigation followed by seed and fertilizers, respectively. In regard to per cent energy intake through inputs, the highest energy spent was for irrigation (35.30 MJ ha-1) and fertilizer (23.80 MJ ha-1).The wheat equivalent yield was higher in sugarcane-ratoon-wheat (125.58 t ha-1). Maximum output energy was with above system (596.70&times;103 MJ ha-1). Highest net energy returns was counted with sugarcane-ratoon-wheat (549.37x103 MJ ha-1), energy ratio (12.60) and energy profitability (11.60). Indeed, energy efficiency was highest in same system (1657.50) followed by maize-berseem-black gram (1421.96).</div>

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Energy Budgeting of Different Cropping Sequences in the Indian Upper Gangetic Plains

<div style="text-align: justify;">To develop fertilizer prescription equations based on soil test crop response (STCR) approach for rice-rice cropping sequence, trials were conducted at farmer&rsquo;s field in Karikalampakkam village, U.T. of Puducherry, during 2015-16. Soil test data, yield and nutrient uptake by successive crops were recorded to calculate four basic parameters viz. nutrient required to produce one quintal of rice, contribution of nutrients from fertilizers, contribution of nutrients from soil and contribution of nutrients from FYM used in developing STCR based fertilizer prescription equations. The per cent nutrient contribution of nutrients from soil (CS), &nbsp;fertilizer ( CF) and FYM (CFYM) were found to be 19.15, 45.90 and 23.27 for N, 12.13,40.16 and 26.98 for P2O5 and 13.76, 79.64 and 41.07 for K2O respectively for rice cv. White ponni. The same for the rice cv.ADT 45 were 13.48, 40.46 and 34.26 for N, 15.81, 44.64 and 19.89 for P2O5 and 10.48, 58.64 and 41.51 for K2O respectively. Based on fertilizer prescription equations and nomograms formulated for a range of soil test values and desired yield target for the cropping sequence. It was revealed that under the treatment NPK + FYM @ 12.5 t ha- 1 , 47, 29 and 34 kg ha- 1 for rice cv.White ponni and 41 , 22 and 27 kg ha- 1 for rice cv.ADT 45 of fertilizer N , P2O5 and &nbsp;K2O, respectively could be saved for attaining target yield of 70 q ha- 1 compared to NPK fertilizers alone.&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Fertilizer Prescriptions under STCR-IPNS for Rice-Rice Cropping Sequence on An Inceptisol (Typic Ustropept) &nbsp;</div>

Background: Enhancing productivity while conserving soil and resources is a pre-requisite for achieving sustainable intensification of agro-ecosystems. Diversification by integrating legumes with millets for such high-intensity systems not only offers a potential of improving soil fertility by fixing nitrogen and residue addition but overall enhances proper balance in nutrient cycling, ensures efficient use of land enhancing year-round productivity under irrigated conditions. 
 
Methods: Field experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu under irrigated conditions to evaluate high intensity legume-millet-millet cropping sequences. The study consisted of twelve cropping sequences laid down in a randomized block design with three replications, covering a complete annual cycle from rabi to kharif. Legume crop (Pea) was grown as common rabi crop across all treatments, followed by three millets foxtail millet, proso millet and pearl millet in the summer season and four millets finger millet, barnyard millet, little millet and kodo millet during kharif. 
 
Result: Productivity of pea remained statistically unaffected during both years. During the summer season, cropping sequences involving pearl millet recorded significantly higher yields followed by foxtail millet. While among the kharif crops, finger millet outperformed other millet crops in sequence in terms of productivity. Overall, cropping systems integrating foxtail or pearl millet during summer and finger millet during kharif achieved the significantly higher system productivity (14,533.92 and 14,582.74 kg ha-1&nbsp;in the first and second year, respectively) and profitability in terms of benefit : cost ratio of 2.62 and 2.38. Hence, the inclusion of pea-foxtail/pearl millet-finger millet proved to be most productive and economical viable option for irrigated conditions. 
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