National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692 Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Prevalence of moisture stress and poor crop establishment are major constraints for the cultivation of rabi crops in maize fallows which results in reduced cropping intensity and insufficient food production in North Eastern Hill region. Hence, the present field experiment was conducted with different maize based cropping systems under diverse soil moisture conservation (SMC) options at mid-altitudes of Meghalaya. Results revealed that cultivation of black gram after preceding maize crop with retention of maize stalk+Tephrosia purpurea mulching increased the soil moisture content followed by maize – pole type French bean with maize stalk+Tephrosia purpurea. Application of Maize stalk+Ambrosia artemisiifolia and maize stalk+Tephrosia purpurea decreased soil BD and increased water holding capacity (WHC) substantially. Besides, Maize–black gram (CS5) recorded lowest soil bulk density (BD) of 1.24 Mg m-3 whereas highest BD was being recorded in no mulch at all depths. There was significant (76 %) increase in WHC under maize-black gram cultivation than maize- fallow at 0-15 cm, maximum WHC being recorded in maize stalk+Tephrosia purpurea at all the depths (74.5, 71.9, and 70.3%). The highest maize equivalent yield was obtained from maize – pole type french bean under maize stalk+Tephrosia purpurea (9.5 t ha-1) followed by Maize stalk+Ambrosia artemisiifolia (8.8 t ha-1) soil moisture conservation measure.
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