Adoption of any cropping system by the farmer depends upon its sustainability under a given set of agronomical functions,climatic variations,crop grown and more important the economic returns(benefitcost ratio)for the grower.Potato(Solanum tuberosum L.)being a flexible crop can easily fits well in many cropping systems prevailing in different agro-climatic regions in the country.It has found a respectable place as a crop that can be sandwiched easily in rice-wheat crop sequence in the Indo-Gangetic plains.In hills where potato is taken as a summer crop under rainfed conditions,the residual affect of fertiliser nutrients applied to potato is sufficient for succeeding pea or garlic.Studies conducted in different agro-climatic regions have shown that potato has prior claim on fertiliser nutrients and because of their sufficient residual affects,fertiliser needs of succeeding crop can be reduced substantially or can be dispensed with.The fertiliser needs of the potato based system has been found to influence by the type of organic manure applied,source,method and time of application of fertilisers,soil type and climatic conditions.Among organic manures,farmyard manure application to potato is more superior followed by green manuring in terms of maintaining system productivity and soil fertility.Direct effect of organic manures to potato viz.,P and K is much higher than their residual effect.Application of fertiliser nutrients on removal rather than their recovery is likely to play a crucial role in coming years in areas with high crop intensity.Intercropping of potato with maize,beans,wheat and sugarcane has been successful and also saves considerable fertilisers.
展开▼
