Analysis of diversified rice based cropping systems under organic management

Abstract

Monocropping of rice has led to the heavy withdrawal of nutrients from the soil. The imbalanced and indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers has reduced the yield and deteriorated the soil health. Diversification of the existing monocropping system especially under the organic condition is an alternative to sustain the yield besides ensuring the ecosystem balance and farm income. Therefore, present investigation was carried out during May 2015 to May 2017 at Department of Agronomy, College of Horticulture, Thrissur to enhance the farmer’s income by diversifying the existing rice monocropping under organic management. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design and replicated thrice. Rice was grown under four different cropping systems with and without foliar spray of liquid organic manures (LOMs) along with traditional cropping system (rice-rice-fallow) keeping as control. The rotations followed were rice-rice-njavara rice, rice-rice-salad cucumber, rice-rice-vegetable cowpea, rice-rice-amaranthus and rice-rice-fallow. The management practices were followed as per the Package of Practices Recommendations: (Ad hoc) for organic farming: Crops of the Kerala Agricultural University. Jeevamrutham, Panchagavya, green leaf extract and fish amino acid were the liquid organic manures sprayed at 15 days intervals after planting/ transplanting. Rice-rice-salad cucumber with and without LOMs enhanced the system productivity by registering highest rice equivalent yield, system productivity, sustainability yield index, gross return and net return while rice-rice-vegetable cowpea with and without LOMs showed highest B:C ratio.