Abstract
The Present Study Was Undertaken In Two Villages Tentuli And Talachampei Of Keonjhar District Of Odisha Which Come Under The Central North Plateau Zone. This Zone Is Characterized By Hilly Upland Area With Reduced Moisture Holding Capacity. There forean Attempt Has Been Made To study The Various Soil And Water Conservation Practices On Cost And Return Of Crop Production,To Identify Factors Affecting Yield Of Crops With Different Treatments And To Study The Farmer’s Perception Of Conservation Agriculture Production System. For This Study 18 Marginal And 2 Small Farmers Were Selected By Employing Multistage Stratified Random Sampling Method. Five Different Trials Or Treatments Namely T1 (Traditional Practice), T2 (Conventional Tillage With HYV Maize), T3 (Conventional Tillage With Maize-Cowpea Intercropping), T4 (Minimum Tillage With Maize As Sole Crop), T5 (Minimum Tillage With Maize Cowpea Intercropping) Were Conducted In The Field. It Was Observed That T5 Gave Highest Net Return (Rs.57352.41/Ha) Followed By T2(Rs.54426.71/Ha), T3 (Rs.47376.12/Ha), T1 (Rs.46376.09/Ha). The Lowest Income Of Rs.14359.9/Ha Was Observed In Case Of T1. Fertilizer With Minimum Tillage And Intercropping Influenced Gross Income Positively And Significantly Throughsoil And Water Conservation Practice. High Yielding Variety And Line Sowing Were Two Most Influencing Factorson Crop Production. Most Profitable Treatment According To Farmer’s Perception Was T5. Lack Of Irrigation Facilities Was Important Constraint In Cultivation Practices. Farmers Should Be Trained For Adoption Of Soil And Water Conservation Practices Like Minimum Tillage, Residue Mulching, Inter-Cropping, Crop Rotation, Line Sowing And Use Of HYV Seeds For Sustainable Crop Production.
Highlights
Global agriculture is facing numerous challenges like adversely affected food and nutritional security
It was found that highest variable cost of Treatment 3 (T3) (10684.89/ha) followed by Treatment 5 (T5) (9863.84) and lowest was in Treatment 1 (T1) (4852.86)
Average yield of maize varies significantly among all these treatments. In both studies of two villages, the farmers practice the average yield of maize as sole crop is 13343 cobs per hectare followed by minimum tillage treatment with maize as sole crop
Summary
Global agriculture is facing numerous challenges like adversely affected food and nutritional security. According to Teklu (2006), land is one of the major conventional inputs that limit agricultural production because it is major source of farming. Intensive agriculture and extreme use of external inputs are leading to degradation of soil water and genetic resources. Estimates reveal that annual loss of soil translates into US$400 billion per year, about 10 million hectare of good quality land is lost annually for agricultural practices and 1.5 billion people depends directly degraded land (FAO,2012). The per capita landholding is diminishing year after year. The average landholding size was diminished from 1.4 to under a hectare during the 1977-2002 (Nagayets, 2005)
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