Background: The promising cropping system over the years in vertisols of Andhra Pradesh is fallow-chickpea and the yields and profits were declining gradually. Farmers were switched over to double cropping system with kharif cereals before chickpea cultivation. Most of the farmers burnt the preceding crop residues which lead to harmful effects on soil flora and air pollution. Preceding crop residues incorporation will improve the soil moisture content, soil carbon content and stabilize the yields of chickpea and system productivity. The present study was conducted to study the impact of crop residues on system productivity and to find suitable cropping system. Methods: Field experiments were conducted during Kharif and rabi seasons of 2018-19 and 2019-20 with split-split plot design and replicated thrice. Result: Foxtail millet-chickpea cropping system recorded higher chickpea equivalent yields, during both years of investigation followed by greengram-chickpea cropping system. Greengram-chickpea cropping system recorded high production use efficiency (48 and 69 kg ha-1 in 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively) followed by foxtail millet-chickpea (43 and 61 kg ha-1 in 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively). By the end of the year of experimentation, greengram-chickpea cropping system showed higher values of SYI, due to higher organic carbon and added biological nitrogen than foxtail millet-chickpea cropping system.