Performance of the wheat-based intercropping system in different irrigation scheduling

Introduction

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most widely grown staple food crops globally, after rice (Ankit et al. 2024) [3] . It is a primary food source for a significant portion of the global population, providing essential nutrients and energy (Kumar et al. 2024) [8] . Wheat is grown on 32.76 million hectares (m ha) lands with total production of 117.51 million tons (m t) contributes 34 per cent of the total food grain production in the country with the productivity of 3587 kg ha -1 (Ministry of Agriculture, GOI 2023-24). In Rajasthan area under wheat crop is 2.74 m ha with production of 9.70 m t and productivity of 3540 kg ha -1 (Ministry of Agriculture, GOR, 2023-24). Wheat is the backbone of food security of India. It is utilized for bread, cakes, cookies, noodles, petri-products and chapatti etc. Wheat grains contains starch 60-68%, protein 8-15%, fat 1.5-2.0%, cellulose 2.0-2.5%, and minerals 1.5-2.0% ((Alemu 2017) [2] . Wheat crop contributes substantially to the national food security by providing more than 50% of the calories to the people who mainly depend on it. While scheduling irrigation to wheat it is known that some of the critical stages are important from yield point of view. "Missing irrigation in critical stages affect the grain yield significantly". Irrigating at the right time, particularly during the crown root development phase, is crucial for wheat's optimal growth and can significantly influence its grain yield" (Raut et al. 2023) [9] . The success of any intercropping system relies on the appropriate selection of companion crop where, competition between them for radiation, CO2 nutrients, moisture, spaces etc., is minimized. This can be achieved by increasing the productivity from the existing area by adopting appropriate agronomic practices, of which intercropping system can be depended as one of the best ways to increase productivity from unit available land (Chaudhari et al., 2017) [5] .

Methods and Materials

Results and Discussion

Intercropping system Number of effective tillers and number of grains per spike of wheat were recorded with sole wheat as compared to intercropping systems where as Wheat + Mustard (10:2), Wheat + Mustard (8:2) and Wheat + Mustard (6:2) was not significant with each other. The maximum grain yield of wheat was recorded with IW/CPE = 1.25 over to IW/CPE = 0.75 but remained statistically at par with IW/CPE = 1.00. Sufficient moisture enhances cell division and elongation, leading to better tiller formation and survival. In contrast, lower irrigation levels (IW/CPE = 0.75) might have resulted in moisture stress, thereby reducing tiller production. Similar findings were reported by Barick et al. (2022) [4] and Alam et al. (2020) [1] , who observed improved tillering under higher irrigation regimes in wheatbased cropping systems. The maximum net return was recorded with IW/CPE = 1.25 over to IW/CPE = 0.75 and IW/CPE = 1.00. Application of IW/CPE = 1.25 and IW/CPE = 1.00 were significantly increased net return to the extent of 50.14 and 36.21 per cent over IW/CPE = 0.75, respectively. Although higher irrigation involves increased cost, the additional yield obtained more than compensates for the extra expenditure, resulting in higher net income. Similar observations were made by Singh et al. (2018) [10] , who reported that appropriate irrigation scheduling enhances both productivity and profitability.

Intercropping system

Effective tillers and number of grains per spike of wheat were recorded with sole wheat as compared to intercropping systems where as Wheat + Mustard (10:2), Wheat + Mustard (8:2) and Wheat + Mustard (6:2). Sufficient moisture enhances cell division and elongation, leading to better tiller formation and survival. In contrast, lower irrigation levels (IW/CPE = 0.75) might have resulted in moisture stress, thereby reducing tiller production. Similar findings were reported by Barick et al. (2022) [4] and Alam et al. (2020) [1] , who observed improved tillering under higher irrigation regimes in wheat-based cropping systems. The maximum grain, straw and biological yield of wheat were recorded with sole wheat as compared to intercropping systems where as Wheat + Mustard (10:2), Wheat + Mustard (8:2) and Wheat + Mustard (6:2). Application of sole wheat was significantly increased straw yield of wheat to the extent of 25.22, 29.33 and 43.19 per cent over Wheat + Mustard (10:2), Wheat + Mustard (8:2) and Wheat + Mustard (6:2), respectively. Wheat + Mustard (6:2) recorded significantly the highest net return of mustard as compared to sole wheat and sole mustard and remained statistically at par with wheat + Mustard (10:2), wheat + Mustard (8:2) and wheat + Mustard (6:2). Similar results were reported by Singh et al. (2018) [10] , who observed that suitable row proportions in intercropping systems significantly enhance economic returns.

References

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