Diversification and nutrient management practices for higher productivity and profitability of baby corn-based cropping systems in peri-urban areas Meena Rajendra Prasad1,2,*, Dhar Shiva1, Kumar Ashok3, Meena Hari Sing4, Meena Nirmal Kumar5, Bamboriya Shanti Devi6, Garg Kamal1, Meena M.C.1, Rathore S.S.1, Kumar Dinesh1, Bhatia Arti1, Singh V.K.7 1ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012, India 2ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora-263601, Uttarakhand, India 3ICAR-National Agricultural Science Fund, KAB-I, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110012, India 4ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, WRS, Avikanagar, Tonk-304501, Rajasthan, India 5College of Horticulture and Forestry, Agriculture University, Kota-326023, Rajasthan, India 6ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab, India 7ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad-500059, Telangana, India *Corresponding author email id: rajendra.meena@icar.gov.in
Abstract Cereals based monocropping with poor nutrient management leads to poor soil health and crop productivity. The sustainable higher yield could be achieved by diversified cropping systems and integrated nutrient management. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out during rainy, winter and summer season of 2016-17 to 2017-18 at Agronomy Division research farm, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, to study the effect of different baby corn-based cropping systems and nutrient management practices on yield performance and profitability of component crops. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with 3 baby corn-based cropping systems viz., CS1) rainy season baby corn-winter season baby corn-summer season baby corn (RBc + WBc + SBc); CS2) RBc-WBc + vegetable fenugreek-summer vegetable cowpea (RBc-WBc + VFg-SCp); and CS3) RBc-WBc + VFg-summer season sweet corn (RBc-WBc + VFg-SSc) in main plotsand five nutrient management practices (NM1- 100% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) through urea; NM2-75% RDN through urea + 25% RDN through FYM; NM3-75% RDN through urea + 25% RDN through vermicompost (VC) ; NM4-75% N through urea + 25% N through leaf compost (LC); NM5-Microbial consortium (Rhizobium/ Azotobacter + PSB + KSB) in sub plots. All the treatment were replicated thrice. Results revealed that, higher yield attributes and yield of rainy season baby corn (BC) were recorded under NM3 and NM2 during 2016 and 2017.Results of rainy season baby corn (BC) showed that, higher BC cobs plant-1 (2.33 and 2.59), BC yield with husk (8.4 and 9.1 t ha-1) and green fodder yield were recorded under NM3 and NM2 treatments during 2016 and 2017. Similarly, BC yield with husk (7.61 and 8.16 t ha-1) and green fodder (24.12 and 26.55 t ha-1) yield during winter season 201-17 and 2017-18 were recorded in NM2 followed by NM3. The highest fenugreek leaf yield (1.70 and 1.85 t ha-1) during the both years were recorded NM2 followed by NM3. During summer season the yield attributes and yields of component crops were also significantly influenced by NMs during both years. The significantly higher BC yield with husk (8.36 and 8.46 t ha-1) and green fodder yield (23.0 and 26.0 t ha-1); cowpea green pods (6.57 and 6.98 t ha-1) and green fodder (8.36 and 8.46 t ha-1) yield; and sweet corn green cob (8 and 8.33 t ha-1), green stover (20.61 and 21.74 t ha-1) yield were recorded under NM2 than NM1 during both years (Table 5). The NM2 was remained on par with NM3 and NM4. Among the CSs, CS3had significantly higher BCEY (7.41 and 7.72 t ha-1) than CS1 during 2016-17 and 2017-18. The significantly highest net returns of the system (429 and 135.3 × 103 Rs. ha-1) during the both 2016-17 and 2017-18 were recorded with RBc-WBc + VFg-SSc which were ~29- 30% higher to RBc-WBc-SBc and ~17-24% higher to RBc- WBc-SCp cropping system. Top Keywords Baby corn equivalent yield, Sweet corn and cowpea, Diversification, FYM, Vermicompost. Top |