Economics of Bt cotton based cropping systems in Vidarbha

Introduction

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) crop is also popularly known as 'white gold' which plays an important role in textile and other allied 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] . Cotton 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. Cotton seed contains 15 to 20 percent oil and is used in vegetable purpose and soap industries. Crop diversity 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) [4] . The diversification 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 multiple agriculture systems with more efficient use of resources (light, water, nutrients) or reduced pest damage. The cotton crop 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. Indian agriculture is struggling with nutrient imbalance, soil degradation, lowering of water table, salinity, resurgence of pests and diseases, environmental pollution and resulting in declining farm profit. The crop sequences with multiple crops are practiced in rainfed areas which reduce the risk factor of crop failures due to drought. This will be helpful for vidarbha region which has more area under rainfed crops. Crop diversification through cropping sequence 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. As cotton allows crop rotation or crop sequence with highvalue crops like legumes and oilseed crops Bt based cotton crop sequence might be economical in Vidarbha region. The selection of appropriate cultivar in any sequence is the key factor (Nichols et al., 2004) [7] . Therefore, 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) [9] . The rainfed farming in vidarbha with unequal, erratic distribution make farming defenseless for sole cropping. Hence, an effort has been made to scrutinize dominated cotton as base crop with mid late and early duration Bt cultivars in cropping sequence with rabi wheat, linseed, chickpea and summer groundnut and green gram crops, which may promote diversification of crops under optimal resource utilization with high returns.

Materials and Methods

The research investigation was conducted during consecutive seasons of Kharif-Rabi-Summer 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 at Agriculture Research Station, Waghapur Road, Yavatmal under Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (MS). 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 as against normal annual precipitation of 926.3 mm in 62 rainy days. The research site was clayey in texture and moderately alkaline 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 comprised of six cropping sequences which includes 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) were laid out in Randomized Block Design replicated thrice. The suitable cultivars were chosen for experiment which were early duration cotton 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). The recommended package of practices viz., land preparation, fertilizer, weeds control and plant protection measures were implemented to make the crop free from insects and diseases throughout the year. The data were recorded on five randomly selected plants of each plot of each replication related to growth, yield and after harvest soil studies.

Results

Seed cotton and cotton equivalent yield

There was significant influence of cropping sequences in terms of seed cotton, lint yield and groundnut equivalent yield observed in the pooled data. The pooled data presented in Table 1 revealed that, sole mid late duration Bt cotton C 6 and C 1 system noted significantly highest seed cotton yield of 2067 and 1990 kg ha -1 , respectively above early duration Bt cotton cultivars. In sequence crops, rabi and summer sequence registered more or less similar yield response in wheat, chickpea, linseed and summer groundnut and green gram yield when sown as sole crop and reflected in the pooled data. Cotton equivalent yield was significantly influenced due to different cropping sequences. Mid late duration Bt cottonsummer groundnut cropping sequence (C 6 ) registered 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 percent increment in crop equivalent yield in pooled data was to the tune of 223.66% over sole mid late duration Bt cotton crop. Cropping sequence C 6 (mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut) was closely followed by early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea cropping sequence (C 3 ), which recorded cotton equivalent yield of 3387 kg ha -1 and extent of increment was 176.13% over sole mid late duration Bt cotton. Farmers practice i.e. early duration Bt cotton + pigeonpea intercropping (6:2) and sole mid late duration Bt cotton recorded the lowest cotton equivalent yield 1856 and 1990 kg ha -1 , respectively.

System productivity, profitability and relative productive efficiency

Crop production efficiency of cropping system, based on the actual crop duration noted numerically higher under early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea (C 3 ) cropping sequence i.e. 1263 kg ha -1 day -1 , which was intimately followed by mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut (C 6 ) crop sequence (1212 kg ha -1 day -1 ). The relative productive efficiency of system was noticed higher in mid late duration Bt cotton -summer 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. The Bt cotton ̶ chickpea (C 3 ) cropping sequence witnessed the highest system profitability of Rs. 476 day -1 ha -1 over rest of cropping sequences and closely followed by mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut crop sequence i.e. Rs. 474 day -1 ha -1 . The comparatively more cropping period i.e. 355 days were required for completion of mid late duration Bt cotton -summer groundnut crop sequence, whereas shortest days (228 days) were registered under early duration Bt cotton-summer green gram cropping system (Table 3).

Economics

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

Discussion

The comparatively longer growing period availability, good crop growth and establishment leads to significantly highest seed cotton yield response in cropping sequence C 6 and C 1 (sole mid late duration Bt cotton). The late sowing of cotton decreases the yield contributing traits and ultimately the seed cotton yield (Iqbal et al., 2012) [6] . The cotton equivalent yield under mid late duration Bt cotton-summer groundnut cropping sequence was noted significantly highest, as mid late Bt cotton attributed to better productivity and higher remuneration in summer groundnut generating an additional increment in cotton yield which ultimately helped to reach level of significance over rest of the treatments. this results are in confirmatory with those reported by Walia et al., (2010) [11] and Patel et al., (2019) [8] . Desai et al. (2022) [4] reported that, dynamicity of cropping system should not based on single year but also on subsequent crop sequence effects. Therefore, more productivity and market rates of the sequence crops with low input cost also helped in witnessing higher cotton equivalent yield and economics returns which ultimately affects system productivity and profitability, Singh and Ahlawat (2012) [10] . The cropping sequence mid late duration Bt cotton-summer groundnut followed by early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea was economically more viable than sole Bt cotton and other cropping systems. Besides this, considering the duration of crop sequence, early duration Bt cotton ̶ chickpea system was slightly more remunerative than mid late duration Bt cotton-summer groundnut sequence. These findings are in confirmatory with Gangawar et al. (2012) [5] and Turkhede et al., (2017) [1] . C1: Sole Bt Cotton (Mid-late duration); C2-Bt-cotton (Early duration)-Wheat; C3-Bt-cotton (Early duration)-Chickpea; C4-Bt-cotton (Early duration)-Linseed; C5-Bt-cotton (Early duration)-summer green gram; C6-Bt-cotton (Mid late duration)-summer Groundnut; C7-Bt-cotton (Early duration) + Pigeonpea (6:2 FP, Rainfed)

Conclusion

The cropping systems approach provides opportunities to increase economic returns, as sole cotton cropping becoming nutrient exhaustive with static cotton crop production in vidarbha region. Therefore, 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 was observed under the investigation. However, early duration kharif cotton-chickpea cropping system recorded higher production efficiency and system profitability owing to its less cropping period cover within a year. Therefore, 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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