Bt cotton based cropping systems suitable for Central Vidarbha zone of Maharashtra

Introduction

Cotton (Gossypium spp.), the king of fiber, is one of the momentous and an important cash crop exercising profound influence on economics and social affairs of the world. It also popularly known as 'white gold' which plays an important role in textile industries and is a means of livelihood for millions of farmers and those concerned with its trade, processing, manufacturing and other allied industries. It is used in the manufacturing of cloth for mankind. Cotton seed contains 15 to 20 percent oil and is used in vegetable purpose and soap industries. The cotton production in India during 2023-24 was 316.57 lakh bales from 123.42 lakh hectares with a productivity of 441 kg lint/ha. During the year 2023-24, Gujarat (89.44 lakh bales), Maharashtra (75.75 lakh bales), Telangana (47.99 lakh bales), Rajasthan (28.10 lakh bales) and Karnataka (19.29 lakh bales) were the major cotton growing states in India. Whereas, Maharashtra ranks first in cotton area 42.22 lakh ha followed by Gujrat, Telangana, Rajasthan and others. (Anonymous, 2024) [2] In multiple cropping systems, productivity in terms of harvestable products per unit area is higher than under sole cropping with the same level of management. Enhanced yields (20-60%) in diverse cropping systems may result from a variety of mechanisms such as more efficient use of resources (light, water, nutrients) or reduced pest damage. The diversifying cropping systems is desirable in rotation with other cereals and pulses like wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), Linseed (Linum usitatissimum), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), green gram (Vigna radiata) in sustainable agriculture system. Crop diversification through intercropping has been shown to improve crop productivity and profitability, conservation of resources and provide a kind of biological insurance against risks and aberrant rainfall behavior in rainfed condition like Vidarbha where 80% farming is rainfed. (Dutta and Bandyopadhyay, 2006) [5] . The Indian agriculture is now facing problems like, nutrient imbalance, soil degradation, salinity, sudden rise and lowering of water table, resurgence of pests and diseases, environmental pollution and decline in farm profit. Being cotton is an important cash crop of Vidarbha region, cotton allows crop rotation or crop sequence with high-value crops like legumes and oilseed crops, which might be a way for farmers to optimize their use of resources. Crop diversification through cropping sequence has been recognized as an effective strategy for achieving the objectives of food security, income growth, nutrition security, poverty alleviation and employment generation, judicious use of land and water resources, sustainable agricultural development and environmental improvement. The crop sequences with multiple crops are practiced in rainfed areas which reduce the risk factor of crop failures due to drought. Besides this, the predominated rainfed farming in Vidarbha region with erratic distribution of rainfall made vulnerable situation for sole cropping. The delay in sowing of rabi crops may cause drastic yield loss and late maturity of cotton also causes poor fiber quality (Baloch et al., 2014) [3] . Moreover, the short duration cotton genotypes are economical regarding cost of production because early maturing cultivars evade from biotic and abiotic risks, also not only minimize the use of pesticides, but also the expenses incur on the other inputs like irrigation water and fertilizers will be condensed down. (Rehana et al., 2001) [10] . Therefore, in any cropping system, cultivar selection is the key factor (Nichols et al., 2004) [8] . Thus, an attempt has been made to investigate pre dominated cotton as base crop with its mid late and early duration Bt cultivars in cropping sequence with rabi wheat, linseed, chickpea and summer groundnut and green gram crops. This crop sequence may promote diversification of crops with efficient utilization of the resources in central Vidarbha zone for sustaining the productivity and profitability.

Materials and Methods

The field research experiment was conducted during consecutives three years of Kharif-Rabi-Summer seasons of 2020-21 to 2022-23 at Agriculture Research Station, Waghapur Road, Yavatmal under Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (MS), to identify the profitable Bt cotton based cropping sequences for Vidarbha zone. The Yavatmal district has semi-arid climate with 926.3 mm normal annual precipitation in 62 rainy days. The total rainfall received during the seasons of 2020, 2021 and 2022 at research site, was 1092.5 mm, 1229.8 mm and 1378.0 mm in 50, 57 and 60 rainy days, respectively. Experimental site was clayey in texture and moderately alkaline (pH 7.77) in reaction, medium in organic carbon (0.64%), low available nitrogen (237.5 kg ha -1 ) and phosphorus (23.5 kg ha -1 ) while high in available potassium 643.9 kg ha -1 . The treatments consist of C 1: Sole Bt Cotton (Mid-late duration), C 2: Bt-cotton (Early duration) ̶ Wheat, C 3: Bt-cotton (Early duration) ̶ Chickpea, C 4 -Bt-cotton (Early duration) ̶ Linseed, C 5: Bt-cotton (Early duration) ̶ summer green gram, C 6: Bt-cotton (Mid late duration) ̶ summer Groundnut and C 7: Bt-cotton (Early duration) + Pigeonpea (6:2 Farmer Practice, Rainfed) which were laid out in Randomized Block Design replicated thrice. The early duration cotton cultivar ACH-5 BGII (Ajeet-5 BGII), mid late duration cotton (PDKV JKAL-116), pigeonpea (PKV Tara), wheat (PDKV Sardar), linseed (NL-260), chickpea (PDKV Kanchan), summer groundnut (TAG-24) and summer green gram (Pusa vaishakhi) cultivars were used for the present investigation. The recommended package of practices viz., land preparation, fertilizer, weed control and plant protection measures were adopted to make the crop free from insects and diseases throughout the year. All The data were recorded on five randomly selected plants of each plot of each replication related to growth, phonological yield and after harvest soil studies.

Results

Seed cotton and sequence crop Yield

The pooled data of three years showed that, seed cotton, lint yield, grain yield of chickpea, wheat, linseed, summer groundnut and green gram in different cropping system were significantly influenced due to different cropping systems. Appraisal of pooled data in Table 1 disclosed that, among the sole mid late duration Bt cotton C 6 and C 1 system recorded significantly the highest seed cotton yield (2067 and 1990 kg ha -1 , respectively) over early duration Bt cotton cultivars. Similar kind of yield response were noted for lint yield of cotton in mid late duration Bt cotton crop. Whereas, in rabi and summer sequence crops grain yield of wheat, chickpea, linseed and summer groundnut and green gram reflected more or less similar yield response when sown as sole crop, in individual as well as in pooled data.

Cotton Equivalent Yield

Appraisal of data in Table 1 in respect of cotton equivalent yield confirm that, there was significant influence of cropping sequences on cotton equivalent yield of the system. Mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut cropping sequence (C 6 ) noted significant supremacy to cotton equivalent yield in individual as well as in pooled years (3796, 4445, 4663 and 4301 kg ha -1 , respectively) over rest of all cropping sequences. This magnitude of increment in crop equivalent yield in pooled data was 223.66% over sole mid late duration Bt cotton crop. The cropping sequence C 6 (mid late duration Bt cottonsummer groundnut) was closely followed by early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea cropping sequence (C 3 ), which recorded 3387 kg ha -1 and magnitude of increment over sole mid late duration Bt cotton was 176.13 %. The farmers practice i.e. early duration Bt cotton + pigeonpea intercropping (6:2) and sole mid late duration Bt cotton noted the lowest cotton equivalent yield 1856 and 1990 kg ha -1 , respectively.

Economics

The pooled data illustrated in Table 2 resulted that, cropping sequence C 6 i.e. mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut reflected into significantly highest gross and net monitory returns of Rs. 248206 ha -1 and Rs. 167117 ha -1 , respectively over other cropping sequences. However, cropping sequence C 6 was closely followed by cropping sequence C 3 i.e. early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea, which recorded gross and net monitory returns of Rs. 195505 ha -1 and Rs. 125461 ha -1 , respectively. Whereas, significantly the lowest gross and net monitory returns were reported in early duration Bt cotton + pigeonpea intercropping (6:2) and sole mid late duration Bt cotton sequence. In respect of benefit to cost ratio, mid late duration Bt cotton ̶ summer groundnut cropping sequence reported highest benefit to cost ratio of 3.06 over early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea crop sequence (2.79).

System productivity, profitability and relative productive efficiency

Crop productivity or production efficiency of cropping system, on actual cropping duration on the basis of cotton equivalent yield was noticed numerical higher in the treatment early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea (C 3 ) cropping system 1263 kg ha -1 day -1 , which was followed by mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut (C 6 ) crop sequence (1212 kg ha -1 day -1 ). Similar kind of outcomes were reflected in terms of system profitability, Bt cotton ̶ chickpea (C 3 ) cropping sequence noted higher values (Rs. 476 day -1 ha -1 ) over rest of cropping sequences and closely followed by crop sequence mid late duration Bt cottonsummer groundnut i.e. Rs. 474 day -1 ha -1 (Table 3). However, relative productive efficiency of system was recorded highest in mid late duration Bt cottonsummer groundnut (116.15 %) cop sequence and it was followed by Bt cotton ̶ chickpea cropping sequence (70.21%) than that of sole mid late duration Bt cotton cropping. Crop duration was numerically found maximum (355 days) under treatment mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut crop sequence, where as numerically shortest days (228 days) were registered for early duration Bt cotton-summer green gram cropping system under study.

Discussion

In connection to seed cotton and lint yield, significantly highest response was noticed in cropping sequence C 6 and C 1 (sole mid late duration Bt cotton). This might be due to comparatively longer growing period availability, good crop growth and establishment. The late sowing of cotton decreases the yield contributing traits and ultimately the seed cotton yield (Iqbal et al., 2012) [7] . The mid late duration Bt cotton-summer groundnut cropping sequence recorded the higher cotton equivalent yield as mid late Bt cotton attributed to better productivity and summer groundnut getting higher remuneration with additional increment in cotton yield which ultimately helped in significant influence on cotton equivalent yield over rest of the treatments. There results are in line with those reported by Walia et al., (2010) [12] and Patel et al., (2019) [9] . The cropping systems approach may offer opportunities for producers to increase economic returns. Management of dynamic cropping systems will need to be based not only on single-year profit opportunities, but also on subsequent crop sequence effects, Desai et al. (2022) [4] . Thus, to more productivity and market rates of the sequence crops and low cost of cultivation also helped in increasing higher cotton equivalent yield and economics returns which ultimately effects on system productivity and profitability. These results are in line with Singh and Ahlawat (2012) [11] . The mid late duration Bt cotton-summer groundnut followed by early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea cropping sequences were economically more viable than sole Bt cotton and other cropping systems. In addition to this considering duration of crop sequence early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea system was slightly remunerative thanMid late duration Bt cottonsummer groundnut sequence. These findings were in confirmatory with Turkhede et al., (2017) [1] .

Conclusion

The continuous adoption of the nutrient exhaustive cotton as sole crop is one of the main cause of declining or static cotton crop production in Vidarbha region. Therefore from the three years investigation on suitable cropping sequence for Vidarbha region it can be concluded that, mid-late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut cropping system noticed significantly the highest cotton equivalent yield, gross monitory returns, net monitory returns and benefit to cost ratio. Whereas, early duration kharif cotton-chickpea cropping system recorded higher production efficiency and system profitability due to its less cropping period cover in a year. Hence, mid-late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut or early duration Bt cotton -chickpea cropping sequence are found to be most suitable and efficient for Vidarbha region for sustaining productivity.

References

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