Evaluation of direct seeded dibbled rice-sweet corn-green gram cropping system grown on polythene mulch

Introduction

In Konkan region of Maharashtra, rice is mainly grown by transplanting method which is laborious, time consuming and costlier. It requires more initial expenditure for nursery raising, more number of labours for the operation like uprooting of seedlings, transport of seedlings, puddling and transplanting. Due to establishment of different industries in Konkan region, scarcity of labour is posing a severe problem to agriculture. Therefore the researchers and farmers are looking to adopt alternative methods of rice establishment like direct seeding by drilling or dibbling, rahu method, etc. Direct seeding is quicker, easier and economical. Direct seeded rice helps to maintain the physical properties of soil which proved advantageous in attaining desired tilth and timely sowing of the succeeding crop (Sharma et al. 2007) [4] . Studies have revealed that direct-seeded rice (DSR) has the potential to replace the traditional transplanted rice Growing of crops on mulches offer many advantages. In recent years, use of plastic mulching in agriculture is found to be beneficial. Plastic mulches are completely impermeable to water; therefore it prevents direct evaporation of moisture from the soil and thus limits the water losses and soil erosion. Plastic mulches can offer a barrier against weeds, moisture loss, nutrient loss, erosion, insect and disease injury. It increases the soil temperature and develop soil micro climate favorable for growth, development and early maturity of the crop. There is early germination under polythene mulch and initial crop growth is also better. Better germination and early corn initiation and flowering were also observed under polythene mulch (Mahale et al. 2002) [3] . Therefore use of plastic mulching in direct seeded dibbled rice-sweet corn-green gram cropping system will help to increase the yield. Keeping this point in the view, the present study was conducted to evaluate the direct seeded dibbled rice-sweet corn-green gram cropping system grown on polythene mulch.

Materials and Methods

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Phondaghat, Tal. Kankavali, Dist. Sindhudurg of Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Dist. Ratnagiri, Maharashtra during the year 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 to evaluate the direct seeded dibbled rice-sweet corngreen gram cropping system grown on polythene mulch. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design taking six treatments viz., flat bed with no mulch, raised bed with no mulch, flat bed with silver-black polythene mulch, raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch, flat bed with black polythene mulch and raised bed with black polythene mulch with four replications. The 30 micron polythene mulching paper was used and on the same polythene much six crops were taken. Normal crop husbandry practices were followed for satisfactory crop growth.

Results and Discussion

Effect on growth attributes, yield attributes and yield of rice It is clear from data presented Table 1 that, growth attributes, yield attributes and yield of rice was significantly influenced due to different treatments. Both silver-black and black polythene mulch either on flat bed or raised bed showed its superiority over no mulch treatments. Significantly taller plant and higher straw yield was recorded in treatment of flat bed with silver-black polythene mulch over rest of the treatments, however it remained statistically at par with flat bed with black polythene mulch for plant height and raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch for straw yield, whereas raised bed with silverblack polythene mulch (T4) registered more number of productive tillers, longest panicle and higher grain yield than rest of the treatments under study except, raised bed with black polythene mulch for length of panicle and grain yield, which behaved statistically in similar way with treatment T4. These results are also comparable with findings of Ehsanullah et al. (2014) [1] in aerobic rice. This increase in values of growth and yield attributes on plastic mulch might be due to effective weed control, which had reduced the competition of weeds with rice crop for space, water, light and nutrients. Thus more space, water, light and nutrients were available for the better growth and development of crop which resulted into higher values of growth and yield attributes. Similarly, increase in minimum soil temperature and soil moisture content in the upper portion of the soil, provided an ideal environment for vigorous growth of the plant. The higher grain and straw yield of rice obtained on plastic mulch may be due to significant increase in growth and yield attributes in polythene mulch. The beneficial effect of plastic mulch on growth and yield attributes of rice finally enhanced the yield of rice.

Table 1: Growth attributes, yield attributes and yield of rice as influenced by different treatments (mean of 3 years).

No. of productive tillers hill -1

Effect on growth attributes, yield attributes and yield of sweet corn

An examination of data presented in table 2 reveals that, plant height, number of leaves plant -1 , number of cobs plant -1 , weight cob -1 , green cob and green fodder yield of sweet corn was significantly influenced due to different treatments. Significantly taller plant and more number of leaves was recoded in treatment of flat bed with silver-black polythene mulch (T3) over rest of the treatments under study, except treatment raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch for number of leaves plant -1 , which behaved statistically in similar way with treatment T3, while raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch (T4) registered significantly more number of cobs plant -1 , and weight cob -1 than rest of the treatments except treatments T3, T5 and T6 for number of cobs plant -1 and treatment T6 for weight cob -1 , which remained statistically on par with treatment T4. Significantly maximum green cob and green fodder yield was recoded in treatment of flat bed with silver-black polythene mulch over no mulch treatments and remained statistically at par with other mulch treatments. Similar increase in growth attributes and yield attribute and yield was reported by Ehsanullah et al. (2014) [1] in aerobic rice. This increase in values of growth and yield attributes on plastic mulch might be due to effective weed control, which had reduced the competition of weeds with sweet corn crop for space, water, light and nutrients. Thus more space, water, light and nutrients were available for the better growth and development of crop which resulted into higher values of growth and yield attributes. Similarly, increase in minimum soil temperature and soil moisture content in the upper portion of the soil, provided an ideal environment for vigorous growth of the plant. Significant improvement in the growth characters and yield attributes under the polythene mulch may resulted in higher green cob yield and green fodder yield of sweet corn.

Effect on growth attributes, yield attributes and yield of green gram

Data presented in table 3 implies that, plant height, number of pods plant -1 , seed and stover yield of green gram was significantly influenced due to different treatments. Significantly higher plant height and number of pods plant -1 was observed in treatment of raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch (T4) over rest of the treatments, except treatments T3, T5 and T6 for plant height and treatment T6 for number of pods palnt -1 , which behaved statistically in similar manner with treatment T4. In case of seed and stover yield, treatment flat bed with silver-black polythene mulch (T3) found to be statistically superior over rest of the treatments, except treatments T4, T5 and T6 for seed yield and treatment T5 for stover yield, which remained statistically at par with treatment T3. Similar increase in growth attributes and yield attribute and yield was reported by Ehsanullah et al. (2014) [1] in aerobic rice. This increase in values of growth and yield attributes on plastic mulch might be due to effective weed control, which had reduced the competition of weeds with green gram crop for space, water, light and nutrients. Thus more space, water, light and nutrients were available for the better growth and development of crop which resulted into higher values of growth and yield attributes. Similarly, increase in soil moisture content in the upper portion of the soil, provided an ideal environment for vigorous growth of the plant. The beneficial effect of plastc mulch on growth attributes and yield attributes have been also noticed by Ehsanullah et al. (2014) [1] and Iqbal and Ali (2014) [2] . Significant improvement in the growth characters and yield attributes under the polythene mulch may resulted in higher seed and stover yield of green gram. Rice-grain equivalent yield of the system It is clear from the data presented in Table 3 that rice-grain equivalent yield of rice-sweet corn-green gram cropping system was influenced significantly by different treatments Significantly higher rice equivalent yield was recorded in treatment of raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch (T4) over rest of treatments except treatment flat bed with silverblack polythene mulch (T3) which behaved statistically similar with T4.

Economics

Data on economics of rice-sweet corn-green gram cropping system as affected by various treatments at input cost and at total cost are furnished in Table 4 and 5 respectively. An examination of data reveals that flat bed without mulch incurred the highest input cost and total cost followed by raised bed without mulch. At both input and total cost higher gross returns, net returns and B: C was recorded in raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch followed by flat bed with silver-black polythene mulch.

Conclusion

Direct seeded dibbled rice-sweet corn-green gram cropping system gown on raised bed with silver-black polythene mulch recorded higher system rice grain equivalent yield, gross returns, net returns and benefit cost ratio followed by flat bed with silver-black polythene mulch.

References

1. Ehsanullah, Qamar R, Kalim M, Rehman A, Iqbal Z, Ghaffar A, et al. Growth and economic assessment of mulches in aerobic rice (Oryza sativa L.). J Agric Res. 2014;52(3):395-406.
2. Iqbal MA, Ali S. Evaluation of yield and yield components of aerobic fine rice (Oryza sativa L.) as influenced by different mulches and planting patterns. Am Eurasian J Agric Environ Sci. 2014;14(10):1089-1094.
3. Mahale AM, Satpute GN, Mahurkar DG, Bhadane RS, Dusane SM. Effect of polythene mulch on morphological parameters and yield of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). Indian J Agron. 2002;41(1):178-182.
4. Sharma RP, Pathak SK, Singh RC. Effect of nitrogen and weed management in direct-seeded rice (Oryza sativa L.) under upland conditions. Indian J Agron. 2007;52(2):114119.