Abstract
Zero tillage with crop residue retention which is principle of conservation agriculture (CA) can be a good practice to achieve sustainable and profitable crop yield without affecting soil fertility. This approach was not tested in wheat and lentil based maize-mungbean system in far western Nepal. The effect of CA in the maize-wheat-mungbean and maize-lentil-mungbean cropping systems with two varieties of each of wheat and lentil was studied at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bhagetada, Dipayal, Doti district of Nepal for two years (2015 and 2016). The average grain yield of wheat and lentil under the CA system was 5.92% higher (2.86 t ha−1) than that of conventional agriculture (2.70 t ha−1). The CA under maize-wheat-mungbean cropping system produced 7.90% higher grain yield (4.78 t ha−1) compared to conventional agriculture and the CA under maize-lentil-mung bean cropping system gave11.11% higher grain yield (1.00 t ha−1). Maize-wheat-mungbean cropping system, conservation agriculture and WK 1204 variety of wheat produced 9.34% higher yield (4.80 t ha−1) than conventional agriculture whereas maize-lentil-mungbean cropping system, conservation agriculture and Khajura1 variety of lentil recorded 11.96% higher grain yield (1.03 t ha−1) than conventional agricultural. The CA system produced 114% higher net benefit (NRs. 40200 ha−1) than that of conventional agriculture. Higher yields of crops in CA system could be associated with improvement of soil properties for minimum soil disturbance and residue retention and profitable yield for reduced cost of production. Thus, the 2-year study suggests that no tillage with previous crop residues retention and use of higher yielding varieties is a potential crop cultivation approach for the maize based cropping system in light textured soil of river basin area of Nepal in order to sustain soil health, crop yield and farm economy.
 J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 16(3): 403–410, December 2018
Highlights
About one third gross domestic product of the country is contributed by agriculture and forestry sector
Effect of cropping systems Significantly higher grain yield of Dhaulagiri and WK 1204 varieties of wheat studied under maize-wheatmungbean cropping system was observed in 2015 (4.99 t ha−1) and 2016 (4.22 t ha−1) than the grain yield of Shimal and Khajura1 variety of lentil studied under maize-lentil-mungbean cropping system during 2015 (1.03 t ha−1) and 2016 (0.88 t ha−1)
Regarding net benefit of the studied varieties, the average net benefit of Dhaulagiri and WK 1204 variety of wheat examined under maize-wheat-mungbean cropping system was found 10.24% higher (NRs.30890 ha−1) than the mean net benefit of Shimal and Khajura1 variety of lentil tested under maize-lentil-mungbean cropping system (NRs. 28020 ha-1)
Summary
About one third gross domestic product of the country is contributed by agriculture and forestry sector. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the third most important cereals crops of the country and it has the total cultivated area and production is 754474 ha, 1883147 t respectively. The national average productivity of wheat is 2496 kg ha−1. Amongst the total cultivated area (328738 ha) and production (226830 t) of pulse crop of the country, lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) occupies major share in both area (205939 ha) and production (226830 t) with the average productivity of 1101 kg ha−1 (ABPSD, 2014). Out of the total area (34736 ha) and production (67654 t) of cereal crops in Doti district, wheat accounts the major share of area (15950 ha) and production (33510 t). Doti district has major share of lentil cultivated area (860 ha) and production (955 t) which accounts
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