Enhancing cropping intensity and system productivity through early-bulking potato genotypes in potato-based cropping systems

Increasing cropping intensity is a key strategy for enhancing food production in regions facing shrinking arable land and rising population pressure. Early-bulking potato genotypes offer opportunities to redesign potato-based cropping systems by creating temporal space for additional crops. This study evaluated the agronomic performance, system productivity, economic returns, and land use efficiency of early-bulking potato genotypes (7 Alu and Sagitta) within intensified potato-based cropping patterns at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Burirhat, Rangpur, Bangladesh during the 2017-2018 cropping year. Thirteen cropping systems, including the conventional potato-boro rice-T. aman rice system, were assessed using a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results showed that incorporation of early-bulking potato genotypes enabled the inclusion of four to five crops per year, substantially increasing system productivity. Potato equivalent yield increased by 43.8-111.5% in the improved patterns compared with the conventional system. The highest land use efficiency (95.61%), whole pattern gross margin (Tk. 538775 ha-1), and marginal benefit-cost ratio (8.17) were achieved in the 7 Alu - garden pea - red amaranth - T. aus rice - T. aman rice pattern, while the highest potato equivalent yield (95.37 t ha-1) was recorded in the 7 Alu - cardinal - Mungbean - red amaranth - T. aman rice pattern. This study indicates that inclusion of early bulking potato varieties has the potential to serve as effective entry-point crops for intensifying potato-based cropping systems, improving land use efficiency and farm profitability. These findings represent promising outcomes from a single-season trial and highlight the potential of flexible cropping system designs that warrant further multi-year and multi-location validation.