INCREASING FARMERS INCOME AND REDUCING SOIL EROSIO USING INTERCROPPING IN RAINFED MAIZE - WHEAT ROTATION OF HIMALAYA, INDIA

Abstract

HUMANKIND FACES THE NEED TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION , MEANWGHILE INCREASING CROP YIELDS AND REDUCING SOIL AND WATER LOSSES. SOIL CONSERVATION THROUGH INTERCROPPING OR CROP CANOPY MANAGEMENT IS WIDELY ACCEPTED AS ONE OF THE WAYS OF DIVERSIFYNG CROP YIELDS IN RAINFED AGRICULTURE IN SLOPING LAND SCAPES . FIELD EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED BETWEEN 2009 AND 2014 TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTS OF ONE OR TWO ROWS OF COWPEA/ OKRA INTERCROPPED WITH MAIZE( PLANTED IN EITHER 90 OR 150 CM SPACING) ON PRODUCTIVITY, PROFITABILITY AND RESOURCE CONSERVATION ON 4% SLOPING CROP LANDS IN THE HIMALAYAS. DURING 5 YEARS OF EXPERIMENTATION, A TOTAL OF 110 RUNOFF EVENTS WERE OBSERVED IN THE MAIZE CROP GROWN IN RAINY MONTHS OF JUNE TO SEPTEMBER. THE RESULTS SHOWED THAT BY GROWING ONE ROW OF COWPEA IN BETWEEN 2 ROWS OF MAIZE ( 90 X 20 CM) , NO EFFECT WAS OBSERVED ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF RAINFED MAIZE . PRODUCTIVITY OF THE SUCCEEDING WHEAT CROP WAS ENHANCED BY 13% WHICH RESULTED IN A HIGHER NET RETURN (117 US $ ha-1) THAN IN A MAIZE WHEAT SYSTEM. THIS SYSTEM ALSO REDUCED RUNOFF AND SOIL LOSS BY 26% AND 43% RESPECTIVELY , COMPARED TO ONLY A MAIZE CROPPING SYSTEM . REGRESSION ANALYSIS REVEALED AS RUNOFF IN MAIZE CROP INCREASES, GRAIN YIELD SUCCEEDING RAINFED WHEAT CROP DECREASES DUE TOT HE LESS AVAILABILITY OF SOIL MOISTURE.