On-farm Productivity and Profitability of Paired-Row-Rice Diversified Cropping System in West Coast Plains and Ghat Region of India

Abstract

Globally diversification of rice based cropping system buildups ecosystem resilience and food security. In the summer season, weed growth and water availability are a major problem for rice cultivation; it can be managed with the help of intercropping. A field experiment was carried out during summer season of 2023-24 at Integrated farming system research station, Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram to study the production potential of diversified intercrops in paired row planted rice in summer fallows of double cropped lowland rice fields. The field experiment was laid out in a randomized, completely block design with 10 treatments and three replications. The treatments were T1: Paired row of Rice + Grain Cowpea, T2: Paired row of Rice + Finger millet, T3: Paired row of Rice + Foxtail millet, T4: Paired row of Rice + Proso millet, T5: Sole crop of Paired row Rice, T6: Sole crop of Grain Cowpea, T7: Sole crop of Finger millet, T8: Sole crop of Foxtail millet, T9: Sole crop of Proso millet, T10:Fallow. Among the treatments, higher number of tillers m-2 and leaf area index were in the sole crop of paired row rice (T5). Among the yield attributes, rice had the highest number of productive tillers m-2, grain yield and straw yield in the sole crop treatment(T5). Sole crop treatments performed best in terms of growth and yield attributes than their intercropping treatments. The highest yield (5.85 t ha⁻¹) was observed in the sole crop of rice (T5), which was superior to all other treatments. The yield recorded in T1 (paired row of rice + grain cowpea) and T4 (paired row of rice + proso millet) were statistically at par and significantly higher than T3 (paired row of rice + foxtail millet). Paired row of rice + grain cowpea (T1) recorded the highest monetary advantage index of ₹ 55820 ha-1. The analyzed data showed that T5(sole crop of paired row rice) resulted in 8 to 15 per cent grain yield increase over intercropping treatments. It can be concluded from the study that among the intercrops, grain cowpea can be recommended for diversification in paired row planting of rice in summer fallows for higher productivity and profitability.