Assessment of system productivity of rice-maize cropping system under irrigated ecosystem

Abstract

Rice-Maize systems currently occupy approx. 3.5 million hectares in Asia. The highest acreage is in India followed by Nepal. Rice, wheat and maize are the major crops of India. Rice-based cropping systems, with wheat or maize as a secondary crop, are predominant in India. Rice and maize is the two principal cereals crop of Chhattisgarh state. The present study was examined assessment of system productivity (rice equivalent yield) of rice-maize cropping system of Durg district of Chhattisgarh state. Data was collected from rice-maize grower families that were selected randomly from each selected 12 villages to make a sample size of 120 rice-maize farm families, with the help of pre-tested interview schedule. The result reveals that the maximum of the respondents (47.50%) were adopted rice-maize/wheat-fallow cropping system, pertaining to average cropping intensity of the respondents was found to be 200.82 per cent. Results on average yield of major crops rice and maize was 39.03 q/ha and 49.71 q/ha respectively. Findings on system productivity (rice equivalent yield) of prevailing cropping system illuminate that higher percentage (5.83%) of the respondents obtained maximum productivity (rice equivalent yield) from rice-maize/wheat/vegetables system (128.2 q/ha).