Effect of tillage and land configuration practices on growth and yield of rainfed soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merill)

Abstract

An agronomic investigation “Effect of tillage and land configuration practices on growth and yield of rainfed soybean” (Glycine max (L.) Merill)” was carried out at Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani M.S. (India) during Kharif 2016. The experiment was planned under dryland condition which consisted of three treatments of tillage practices as main plots and four treatments of land configurations as sub plots constituting twelve treatment combinations which were replicated thrice in split plot design. Three tillage practices i.e.T1 (conventional tillage), T2 (rotary tillage) and T3 (sub soiling tillage) were tested with four land configurations i.e. L1 (broad bed furrow), L2 (flat-bed), L3 (ridges & furrow) and L4 (opening of furrow) in the investigation. The seed yield was found to be significantly higher in tillage practice of sub soiling tillage (T3) 3044.30 kg ha-1 followed by conventional tillage (T1) 2385.10 kg ha-1 and rotary tillage (T2) 2037.80 kg ha-1. Adoption of sub soiling tillage (T3) gave higher gross monetary returns, net monetary returns and benefit & cost ratio. Whereas, among different land configurations, the seed yield also in broad bed furrow (L1) 2935 kg ha- were found to be significantly superior in respect of seed (kg ha-1), straw (kg ha1), biological yields- 1 it was stood far ahead followed by ridges and furrow (L3) 2586.20 kg ha-1, opening of furrow (L4) 2390 kg ha-1 and flatbed (L2) 2045.10 kg ha-1. Among various land configurations, broad bed furrow (L1) recorded higher GMR, NMR, benefit & cost ratio.Rain water use efficiency was found to be significantly higher in sub soiling tillage (T3) and among land configurations, the broad bed furrow (L1) recorded higher rain water use efficiency. The interaction effects between tillage practices and land configurations significantly influenced the growth and yield of soybean and sub soiling tillage (T3) and broad bed furrow (L1) combination recorded significantly higher soybean seed yield, GMR, NMR, and RWUE than rest of the treatment combinations. Thus to achieve higher soybean yield and higher NMR with maximum RWUE, soybean crop may be planted on sub soiling tillage and broad bed furrow (T3 L1).