Sustainable Agriculture Systems and Technologies

Figure 2.3 Agro‐ecological regions map of the country (2015) and revised Bio‐climates of India (2015) (e‐Publication: ICAR‐NBSS&LUP Technologies). ( See insert for color representation of the figure .)

At present, there are around 25 Mha area under oilseed crops with 37 MT of total production, even this is not sufficient to meet domestic oil requirement, hence India is importing around 15 MT of edible oils from abroad. On the other hand, there exists enormous potential to expand oilseeds area in the country and crop diversification with oilseed crops is one of such options. And it is hugely possible in irrigated IGP regions through crop intensification, where number of computable crops are grown either in sequential or intercropping systems. There are crops which act as complementary to each other when grown together, like growing legumes with cereals, through positive allopathic effect (mustard + wheat, mustard + potato, etc.) and in tier/multistoreyed system. This type of crop combination needs to be identified and promoted for achieving desired results. The selection of crops in crop diversification depends upon many factors like available resources, prevailing weather conditions, market demand, ease of doing cultivation, and overall high productivity and profitability from the possible combinations. The established possible combination is enlisted below ( Tables 2.1and 2.2).

Inclusion of oilseed crop, Indian mustard with early maturing short duration varieties like PM 28 and PM 26 in maize (fodder)‐mustard‐late wheat system restyled n higher system productivity and also the profitability ( Table 2.3). Maximum system productivity (49.9 t/ha) and system net return (Rs. 1.45 lakhs) were obtained from M‐M(PM28)‐late wheat (HD 3118) Maize‐mustard (PM28)‐late wheat (HD 3118) system.

Table 2.1 Crop diversification options with oilseed crops.

Source : Modified from Palaniappan and Jeyabal 2002.

Table 2.2 The diversification of traditional crop base with annual oilseed crop.

Source : Reddy and Suresh 2006.

Table 2.3 System productivity and economics of maize‐based diversification system.

Source : Data from Rathore et al. 2020.

System productivity of maize (fodder)‐early mustard (PM 28)‐late wheat (HD 3118) was recorded maximum with higher net return and B : C ratio. Similarly higher system productivity and profitability were recorded under 5.0 kg Zn application during kharif season crop in a calendar crop year.

Legumes are the crops very vital for a successful crop diversification plan of any area. These crops through, biological N fixation, maintain optimum soil health and good soil fertility. An ideal crop diversification plan must include leguminous crops either as sequence cropping or intercropping. Recognizing the importance of pulses for meeting dietary requirements of vast vegetarian population on one hand and their role in improving soil health and conserving natural resources on the other, the efforts were made to develop high yielding, short duration and disease resistant varieties of different pulse crops which can help in diversification and intensification of popular cropping systems. The development of short duration, disease‐resistant and high yielding varieties in the recent past made these crops a viable alternative to low yielding coarse cereals under rainfed conditions and also provided an opportunity for expansion in rice fallows and in double cropping systems. Due to the reasons of source of nutritious food, feed, and forage, pulses are an integral part of subsistence cropping system in large part of the country. The pulses are grown in almost all types of cropping systems as a sole crop, intercrop, catch crop, relay crop, cover crop, and green manure crop, etc., under sequential/mono‐cropping in different agroecological regions. Under dryland areas pulses are predominant due to their low water requirements. The development of short duration varieties of mungbean, urdbean, and pigeonpea has paved way for crop diversification and intensification in many parts of IGP zones ( Table 2.4).