Zero tillage with crop residue retention which is principle of conservation agriculture (CA) can be a good practice to achieve sustainable and profitable crop yield without affecting soil fertility. This approach was not tested in wheat and lentil based maize-mungbean system in far western Nepal. The effect of CA in the maize-wheat-mungbean and maize-lentil-mungbean cropping systems with two varieties of each of wheat and lentil was studied at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bhagetada, Dipayal, Doti district of Nepal for two years (2015 and 2016). The average grain yield of wheat and lentil under the CA system was 5.92% higher (2.86 t ha−1) than that of conventional agriculture (2.70 t ha−1). The CA under maize-wheat-mungbean cropping system produced 7.90% higher grain yield (4.78 t ha−1) compared to conventional agriculture and the CA under maize-lentil-mung bean cropping system gave11.11% higher grain yield (1.00 t ha−1). Maize-wheat-mungbean cropping system, conservation agriculture and WK 1204 variety of wheat produced 9.34% higher yield (4.80 t ha−1) than conventional agriculture whereas maize-lentil-mungbean cropping system, conservation agriculture and Khajura1 variety of lentil recorded 11.96% higher grain yield (1.03 t ha−1) than conventional agricultural. The CA system produced 114% higher net benefit (NRs. 40200 ha−1) than that of conventional agriculture. Higher yields of crops in CA system could be associated with improvement of soil properties for minimum soil disturbance and residue retention and profitable yield for reduced cost of production. Thus, the 2-year study suggests that no tillage with previous crop residues retention and use of higher yielding varieties is a potential crop cultivation approach for the maize based cropping system in light textured soil of river basin area of Nepal in order to sustain soil health, crop yield and farm economy. J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 16(3): 403–410, December 2018
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L), grown under traditional practices becoming less productive and less profitable in Nepal, due to ever-increasing input prices and intensive land preparation. A field experiment was conducted to find alternate practices for enhancing productivity of wheat at the National Wheat Research Program, Bhairahawa during the winter season of 2018/19 and 2019/20. The experiment plot was designed on strip-split plot design with 3 replications. Three tillage methods, surface seeding (SS), zero tillage (ZT), and conventional tillage (CT) were assigned in vertical strips with two levels of crop residue management: residue removed (R0) and residue retention (R50) in horizontal blocks, whereas three levels of nutrient management: recommended dose of NPK (F100), 25% higher dose of NPK (F125) and farmer’s practice (FP) were assigned in subplots. Data regarding growth, yield attributes, and yield were recorded and analyzed by Genstat. In the first year, ZT was better in terms of number of tillers at maximum tillering stage, maximum leaf area index, effective tiller per square meter, number of grain per spike, and straw yield compared to SS and CT; whereas in the second year SS was better in terms of growth, yield attributes and yield as compared to ZT and CT. In the first year, R(0) produced significantly higher straw yield but significantly lower harvest index (HI) than R(50) whereas in second year R(50) produced significantly higher thousand grain weight, grain yield and HI. The application of 25% more nutrients than the recommended dose resulted significantly better most of the growth, yield attributes, and yield during both years. On the average of two years, ZT produced more yield than CT and SS by 26.6% and 3.0% respectively. The short term ZT significantly increased the bulk density as compared to SS and CT. Based on the research results, it can be suggested that the traditional practices of wheat can be replaced by ZT with retention of previous crop residues and the application of 25% more nutrients than the recommended dose.
Intensive conventional tillage practices in Doti district, far western Nepal has been experiencing low crop productivity and profitability. A shift towards conservation agriculture (CA) practices improve the crop production and farmer's net income. This research assessed the effects over two consecutive years (2014/15-2015/16) of CA system on crop and system productivity and profitability of different maize-based cropping system. This study under split-split plot design with four replications examined the effects of two cropping systems (Maize-wheat-mungbean and maize-lentilmungbean), two cultural practices (CA and conventional agricultural practices) and four varietal sequences (Rajkumar-Dhaulagiri and Shimal-Pratikshya, Rajkumar-WK 1204 and Khajura1-Pratikshya, Arun2-Dhaulagiri and Shimal-Kalyan and Arun 2-WK 1204 and Khajura1-Kalyan). Results showed that cereal-cereal-legume cropping system, CA practices and varietal sequence of Rajkumar-WK 1204-Pratikshya produced 10.87% higher system yield (12.85 t ha-1 yr-1) than conventional agricultural practices (11.59 t ha-1 yr-1), 83.47% higher system net benefit (1554 US$ ha-1 yr-1) than conventional agricultural practices (847 US$ ha-1 yr-1) and 7.76% higher maize equivalent yield (17.08 t ha-1 yr-1) than conventional agricultural practices (15.85 t ha-1 yr-1). Similarly, cereal-legume-legume cropping system, CA practices and varietal sequence of Rajkumar-Khajura1-Pratikshya produced 19.62% higher system yield (9.39 t ha-1 yr-1) than conventional agricultural practices (7.85 t ha-1 yr-1), 139.39% higher system net benefit (1594 US$ ha-1 yr-1) than conventional agricultural practices (666 US$ ha-1 yr-1) and 12.70% higher maize equivalent yield (16.50 t ha-1 yr-1) than conventional agricultural practices (14.64 t ha-1 yr-1). Therefore, farmers should apply cereal-cereal-legume cropping system (irrigated condition), cereal-legume-legume cropping system (rainfed condition), CA practices and varietal sequence of Rajkumar-WK 1204-Pratikshya and Rajkumar-Khajura1-Pratikshya for higher system productivity and profitability.
An experiment was conducted for response of nutrient omission to irrigation scheduling in hybrid maize during winter season of 2015 at farmer’s field Khajura, Banke where intense summer and severe winter occurs. Soil is sandy loam and climatically humid sub-tropical with average annual rainfall of 1000-1500 mm. The experiment was replicated 3 times with split plot design having plot size of 3 x 3.6 m2. There were three irrigation level as main plot; (30 -35 DAS, tasseling stage), (30-35 DAS, tasseling, grain filling stage), (tasseling stage) and six level of fertilizer dose as sub-plot; farmer fertilization practice (27.6:27.6:18 N-P-K kg ha-1), recommended dose of fertilizer (160:60:40 N-P-K kgha-1), 50 percent above recommended dose (240: 90: 60 N-P-K kg ha-1), N0PK (60:40 P-K kg ha-1), NP0K (160:40 N-K kg ha-1), NPK0 (160:60 N-P kg ha-1). 3 level of irrigation increased the grain yield (4333 kg ha-1) by 33.7% than 2 level of irrigation (3240.6 kg ha-1) and 78.4% than single irrigation (2428.8 kg ha-1). Similarly, 182.4% grain yield could be increased with RDF (4994.9 kg ha-1) than N0PK (1768.6 kg ha-1). Grain nutrient uptake was recorded 80.4% N (56.3 kg ha-1), 79% P (18.8 kg ha-1), 88.8% K (15.1 kg ha-1) higher with three levels of irrigation than single irrigation N (31.2 kg ha-1), P (10.5 kg ha-1), K (8 kg ha-1) and 184% N (64.6 kg ha-1), 183.7% P (21 kg ha-1) and 188% K (17 kg ha-1) was recorded higher with RDF than (N0PK) N (22.7 kg ha-1), P (7.4 kg ha-1), K (5.9 kg ha-1). Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 8(3): 343-354
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