Performance of maize based cropping system in upland rainfed condition of Assam

An experiment was conducted under rainfed upland condition at the research farm of All India Coordinated Research Project on Dryland Agriculture, Biswanath College of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Biswanath Chariali during kharif, Rabi and summer season of 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. The basic idea of the experiment is to study the physibility of increasing cropping intensity and to identify a best crop sequence suitable for a calendar year. The experiment was started from the kharif season and ended in summer season. In kharif season maize crop was grown in paired row system intercropped with greengram and blackgram in additive series of intercropping. After kharif maize, six Rabi crops (toria, linseed, buckwheat, Niger, rajmah and potato) were studied and after Rabi crops, the two summer crops (greengram and blackgram) were grown in summer season as the third crop the sequences. The twelve different cropping sequence including cereal, pulses, oilseed crops were the treatment of the study which were replicated thrice and their performance in terms of yield besides soil and cropping system evaluation parameters’ were analyzed to identify the best cropping sequences under rainfed upland situation. After three years of experimentation it was found that the cropping sequence maize +greengram-rajmah-blackram with a B:C ratio of 2.63 was the best sequence which is closely followed maize+greengram-niger-blackgram with a B:C ration of 2.62. The available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was found to be improved after three years of study although no significant differences were recorded among the twelve different sequences in terms of improving Available N, P and K.