Residue retention and nitrogen management of preceding crops influences the productivity, profitability and environmental footprints of summer mungbean in maize-based cropping systems under conservation agriculture

ABSTRACT

A field study was carried out during 7th and 8th cycles in conservation agriculture to assess the influence of cropping system {(maize-mustard (MMu) and maize-wheat (MW)}, residue application {(with residue (WR) and without residue (WoR)} and precision nitrogen management options in preceding crop {recommended dose of N (RDN), 33%, 50% and 70% basal RDN + green seeker (GS) based N application} on succeeding summer mungbean. The WR enhanced 17.5% and 13.6% seed yield with 29.1% and 12.06% higher net returns of mungbean in MMu and MW, respectively. Residue mulching with 50+ GS significantly increased the seed protein content. The MMu with WR and 33+ GS produced higher environmental footprints (532.8 and 479.5 kg CO₂-e Mg⁻¹), respectively. Similarly, significantly higher gross energy was produced in WR (44.2 × 10³ MJ ha⁻¹) while, WoR produced higher net energy (11.7 × 10³ MJ ha⁻¹) under MMu compared to MW (43.1 and 8.31 MJ ha⁻¹), respectively. Thus, growing of mungbean under maize-based cropping systems with residue and 50+ GS guided N fertilization to previous crops (maize-wheat/mustard) improved yield and net returns with lower environmentally footprints and energy consumption in Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) and similar agro-ecologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation agriculture
• carbon footprints
• economics
• precision nitrogen management
• seed protein
• yield

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely acknowledge the support of Mr Sanjeev in data recording and laboratory work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors are also thankful to ICAR 11000–IARI for providing institutional fellowship to the first author. The research grant received by the ICAR-National Agricultural Science Fund, New Delhi (Grant number: CA-7022/2018-19) to carry out the study is also duly acknowledged.