Effect of tillage and crop establishment practices on productivity profitability and sustainability of maize based cropping systems

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted on Bihar Agricultural College Research Farm, Sabour, Bhagalpur during the kharif and rabi seasons of 2012-13 and 2013-14. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The treatments comprised of three tillage systems viz.conventional tillage, zero tillage and permanent raised bed system in the main plots and six cropping systems viz.maize+soybean-wheat, maize-wheat, maize-maize, maize-rapeseed, maize-chickpea and soybean-maize in sub plots. The soil of experimental plots was silty loam in texture, neutral in reaction, low in organic carbon and nitrogen, medium in available phosphate and potash. Field observations were taken in all crops viz. kharif maize, soybean, rabi maize, wheat, rapeseed and chickpea in two heads, growth and yield and yield attributes.The observations with similar dimensions were pooled for analysis over the environments of the two cropping seasons. However, the data with varying dimensions over various cropping systems has been interpreted from the mean of two years. newline