Effect of different cropping sequences and fertility levels on the winter dual purpose food and fodder crops

Abstract

Six crop rotations, namely, soybean and maize in summer each followed by wheat, barley and mustard in winter at three fertility levels (F1 = 10 t FYM ha⁻¹, F2 = 100% of recommended NPK and F3 = 50% of F2 + F1) were assessed for dual purpose winter crops and for grain production from summer crops at VPKAS (ICAR), Almora, Uttarakhand, India. Green forage from wheat and barley were cut at 75–80 days after sowing, while green forage from mustard was obtained by thinning and removal of alternate rows up to 45 DAS. The green forage obtained after soybean was 29% more than after maize (7.1 t ha⁻¹). The average mean green forage yield of winter crops increased from F1 to F2 by 37% and from F2 to F3 fertility level by 24%. Barley yielded highest nutrient uptake of NPK (70.9, 5.0 and 38.8 g kg⁻¹ DM, respectively) followed by wheat. Grain yield of soybean in F3 produced significantly higher grain yield over F1 and F2. While grain yield of wheat, barley and mustard increased significantly as the fertility level increased to F2 or F3 over F1. Soybean followed by dual-purpose wheat was efficient crop rotation (1.55 B:C ratio).

Keywords:

• cropping sequence
• fertility levels
• dual purpose food and fodder crops
• green and dry fodder
• grain and straw yield