Impact of Mineral and Organic Fertilizer Management on the Performance of Oat-Chickpea Cropping Systems

R. Joseph Koireng (), Diana Shamurailatpam, T. Sunanda Devi, S. Dayananda Singh, Pushparani Senjam, Sonika Yumnam, Nilima Karam, L. Sophia Devi and Kholu Mary
Additional contact information
R. Joseph Koireng: All India Coordinated Research Project on Forage Crops and Utilization, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
Diana Shamurailatpam: All India Coordinated Research Project on Rapeseed and Mustard, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
T. Sunanda Devi: All India Coordinated Research Project on Soybean, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
S. Dayananda Singh: All India Coordinated Research Project on Maize, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
Pushparani Senjam: All India Coordinated Research Project on Rapeseed and Mustard, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
Sonika Yumnam: All India Coordinated Research Project on Chickpea, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
Nilima Karam: All India Coordinated Research Project on Soybean, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
L. Sophia Devi: All India Coordinated Research Project on Soybean, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal 795004, Manipur, India
Kholu Mary: Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV), Krishak Nagar, Raipur 492012, Chhattisgarh, India

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-13

Abstract: In India, particularly in Manipur, the cultivation of fodder crops is given the least attention as most of the agricultural land is devoted to food crops to meet the food demand of our enormous population. As a result, livestock productivity of the state is suffering. In addition, cultivation of single crops repeatedly over years using inorganic sources of nutrients as inputs for the growth and development of the crops in the same field leads to low production at the cost of soil quality deterioration and environmental issues. Therefore, an experiment was carried out to evaluate the productivity of the oat–chickpea intercropping system to assess the effect of mineral and organic fertilizer management using factorial randomized block design with three replications comprising four levels of the cropping system (CS1-sole oat, CS2-sole chickpea, CS3-intercropping of oat with chickpea in a 3:2 row ratio and CS4-intercropping of oat with chickpea in a 3:3 row ratio) in the main plot and three levels of nutrient management (F1—Full RDF(recommended dose of fertilizer)through inorganic source, F2—50% N of RDF + 50% N through FYM(farm yard manure)and F3—50% N of RDF + 50%N through vermicompost) in the sub plot to study their productivity and economic feasibility. Three years of pooled results revealed that the maximum green fodder yield (50.88 t/ha), dry matter yield (11.84 t/ha) and plant height (120.69 cm) of oat was recorded in CS1, which is among the intercropping systems with the highest green fodder yield (40.11 t/ha) and has a plant height of 115.06 cm; this was recorded in CS3 and the highest dry matter yield (8.44 t/ha) was recorded in CS4. Application of F3 to oats gave the highest green fodder yield, dry matter yield and maximum plant height in all three years of the growing period. The maximum seed yield (1.86 t/ha), harvest index (46.05%), stover yield (2.15 t/ha/ha) and plant height (53.55 cm) of chickpea was obtained in CS2, but among the intercropping system, CS4 was statistically significant at a 5% probability level and was superior in seed yield and stover yield, as compared to the CS3cropping system. The application of F2 showed a higher seed yield and stover yield of chickpea. The green forage equivalent yield (85.37 t/ha), land equivalent ratio (LER) (1.63), gross return ($1902/ha), net returns ($1436/ha) and benefit cost ratio (4.19) were recorded to be the highest in the CS4 cropping system of oat and chickpea. This study concludes that CS4, in combination with the application of F3, can be recommended as it provides a higher green forage equivalent yield, LER and other economic benefits, as compared to other cropping systems and nutrient management practices.

Keywords: productivity of oat-chickpea; intercropping; mineral and organic fertilizer management; FYM; vermicompost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15431/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15431/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15431-:d:978590

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().