Effect of conservation tillage and weed management practices in rice - sweet corn - cow pea cropping system on growth, yield and economics of sweet corn in coastal Odisha

摘要

A field experiment was carried out in a strip-plot design with three replications to study the effect of conservation tillage and weed management practices on rice-sweet corn-cowpea system at Central Research Station, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar. The soil was sandy loam Typic Endoaquepts. The present study confined to growth, yield and economics of sweet corn crop during 2016 to 2018 after completion of the 5~(th) cropping cycle of the permanently laid-out experiment. The growth and yield attributing characters of sweet corn were maximum in conventionally tilled sweet corn after conventionally tilled direct seeded rice(CT(DSR)-CT-ZT), which was at par with conventionally tilled sweet corn after conventionally tilled transplanted rice (CT (TPR)-CT-F). Sweet corn yield under CT (DSR)-CT-ZT was 10.4 higher than sweet corn with zero tillage (ZT (DSR)-ZT-ZT). Residues retention in zero tillage improved all the growth and yield parameters of sweet corn over zero tillage. Integrated weed management with pendimethalin @1.0 kg/ha (Pre emergence, 1 DAS) + mechanical weeding (30 DAS) + 1 hoeing (45 DAS) resulted in higher growth and yield attributes of sweet corn resulting in 12.3 higher green cob yield than cultural method, but was at par with chemical alone. But direct-seeded rice under conventional tillage followed by conventional tilled sweet corn and zero tilled cow pea (CT (DSR)-CT-ZT) in the system along with integrated weed management practice fetched higher gross returns, net returns and B:C for the crop and was the most feasible and profitable option for conservation agriculture in rice-sweet corn-cow pea cropping system.