Impact of Land Configuration, Life Saving Irrigation and Intercropping on Yield and Economics of Major Rainfed Crops in Southern Telangana Zone of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Three separate field experiments were conducted during kharif 2008-09 and 2009-10 at Regional Agricultural Research Station (ANGRAU), Palem to study the impact of land configuration, life saving irrigation and intercropping on yield and economics of major rainfed crops (castor and redgram) of Southern Telangana Zone of Andhra Pradesh. Results of pooled analysis of individual experiment revealed that life saving irrigation @ 20 mm with harvested water (from farm pond) through sprinkler method of irrigation was found to have enhanced the castor and redgram seed yield by 21.9 and 28.1%, respectively over purely rainfed crop. It also resulted in additional net returns of ` 4118 ha-1 and ` 12722 ha-1 in castor and redgram, respectively. Adoption of ridge and furrow method (1058 kg ha-1) of land configuration resulted in 6.54% and 12.3% higher castor bean yield over dead furrow (993 kg ha-1) and flat bed method (942 kg ha-1), respectively. While, it was 6.84 and 18.2 in case of redgram. Ridge and furrow was at par with dead furrow but significantly superior to flat bed with respect to seed yield of castor. On the other hand, ridge furrow was significantly superior to dead furrow and flat bed in case of redgram. Castor + redgram (1:1) intercropping system (1417 kg ha-1) being at par with sole redgram (1382 kg ha-1) recorded signifi­cantly higher castor seed equivalent yield and also higher RNR index (1.67). But, sole redgram gave higher net returns (Rs. 19026 ha-1) and was closely followed by castor + redgram (1:1) intercropping system (Rs. 18117 ha-1).