Influence of land configuration on crop yield of kharif Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) based cropping sequence under rainfed upland situation

Introduction

Rainfed agriculture is most common form of agriculture in India, covering about 92.8 million hectares, which accounts for nearly 65% of the net sown area. It provides 44% to the country's food grain production (Gangwar et al. 2012) [8] thereby playing a crucial role in the national economy and food security. Rainfed agriculture is widely practiced in Assam where farmers depend entirely on rainfall for crop water requirements. Therefore, proper planning and crop management strategies based on regional rainfall patterns are essential for maintaining reasonable crop yields under rainfed conditions (Deka and Nath, 2000) [7] . Land surface management techniques such as raised and sunken beds, ridge and furrow, and broad bed and furrow (BBF) systems have shown considerable potential in regulating surface runoff, reducing soil erosion, and improving water infiltration. By reducing runoff velocity, the BBF system increases the opportunity time for water infiltration and minimizes sediment losses. In addition, furrows facilitate the safe drainage of excess water during the periods of heavy rainfall thereby preventing waterlogging and congestion around crop root zones (Borde et al. 2022) [4] . The broad bed furrow (BBF) method is an emerging land configuration practice in rainfed farming system as it conserves moisture during dry periods while effectively draining excess water through furrows during heavy rainfall. (Baruah et al. 2021) [1] Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L) is an important food legume found in tropical and subtropical regions. It is commonly known as peanut, monkey nut, earth nut due to its underground growth. Groundnut is mostly grown in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Senegal, Indonesia, Nigeria, China, India and USA (Singh et al. 2004) [15] . Often referred to as the "King of Oilseeds," groundnut ranks as the 2 ⟨nd⟩ most produced oilseed in India and the 3 ⟨rd⟩ most in the world. India is the world's greatest producer of groundnuts in terms of area and ranked 2 ⟨nd⟩ in production. In Assam, major oilseed crops include rapeseed, mustard and sesamum which occupy a substantial proportion of the oilseed area. Although groundnut is cultivated on a relatively small scale in the state, it has considerable potential for expansion, particularly in the Brahmaputra riverbed ("char") areas. Cropping sequences involve the cultivation of different crops such as cereals, pulses, oilseeds etc in a planned order on the same field over time. A cropping sequence refers to the successive cultivation of crops on a given area within a defined period. Well-designed cropping systems often include complementary crop combinations, wherein a beneficial crop enhances soil fertility and resource use efficiency, while an exploitative crop optimizes overall productivity. Keeping all the above aspects into consideration, an investigation was made to study the "Effect of land configuration on kharif Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) based cropping sequence under rainfed upland situation" with the following three broad objectives:  Study the effect of Broad Bed Furrow (BBF) as land configuration in groundnut based cropping sequence  Identify suitable groundnut based cropping sequence (s) in rainfed upland situation  Study the effect of treatments on soil moisture and soil nutrient status

Materials and Methods

The The soil of the experiment was sandy loam in texture and the initial available soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were in the range 388.86 kg ha-1, 16.83 kg ha-1 and 164.45 kg ha-1 respectively. The experimental field was laid out into three blocks and each block was divided into four main plots to allocate the four land configuration practices randomly, for growing kharif (groundnut) and rabi (toria, pea and rajmah) crops in sequence, following the principles of Split plot design. The layout of the experiment consisting of the broad bed furrows at 90 cm, 120 cm and 150 cm apart with 30 cm width furrow in between them were constructed manually along with the flatbeds before sowing of groundnut. The main plots were divided into three sub-plots in rabi season to allocate the rabi crops randomly following a split-plot design and kharif groundnut crops were analysed in RBD.

In rabi season, after harvest of groundnut, all the plots in each block were prepared manually, retained the broad bed furrows and sub-plots and three rabi crops viz. toria, pea and rajmah were allocated following a split-plot design. However, due to dissimilarity in biometric observations on different rabi crop parameters, only average value of yield attributes and yield were recorded for the rabi crops. The yield parameter was converted into groundnut equivalent yield after harvesting of the rabi crops. The parameters for cropping system are determined by following formula: Groundnut Equivalent Yield (GEY) of Rabi Crops: The seed yields of rabi crops (toria, pea, and rajmah) were converted into groundnut equivalent yield using the following formula:

Result and Discussion

Effect of land configuration practices on kharif groundnut Yield attributes: The yield attributes viz. branch plant-1 and pod plant-1 (Table 1) of kharif groundnut due to different land configuration practices differed significantly. The effect of the treatments BBF 150-30cm on branch plant-1 with was found maximum which is significantly at par with treatment BBF 120-30cm and BBF 90-30cm with and flatbed was found minimum. In respect to number of pod plant-1 maximum and minimum was recorded in BBF 150-30cm and flatbed respectively and former one is statistically at par with BBF 120-30cm with. The number of branch plant-1 and the number of pod plant-1 were significantly influenced by different land configuration practices. Among the treatments, BBF 150-30 cm recorded superiority in all parameters whereas flatbed recorded the lowest value. This best result obtained might be due to the fact of loose soil surface which helped better root growth and development thereby giving room for efficient accessibility of water and nutrients. These findings are in close agreement with Kamble et al. (2016) [9] who reported that the broad bed furrow created a loose soil structure with sufficient moisture retention, providing favourable conditions for peg penetration and pod development. Similarly, higher pod plant-1 under furrow methods of planting (Chowdary et al., 2022) [6] may be due to effective drainage of excess rainfall through furrows.

Pod and Stover Yield: Data on pod yield and stover yield of kharif groundnut as influenced by different land configuration (Table 2). Results revealed that pod yield under the treatment BBF 150-30cm was produced significantly higher pod yield which is followed by BBF 120-30cm and BBF 90-30cm. While the lowest pod yield was recorded under the flat bed method of sowing. In respect to stover yield, BBF 150-30cm resulted in higher value which is at par with BBF 120-30cm and BBF 90-30cm and flatbed recorded the least stover yield. BBF 150-30cm recorded the highest pod yield and stover yield which were significantly superior to all other treatments. The increase in both pod yield and stover yield under BBF may be attributed due to loose and well-aerated seedbed which facilitated effective peg penetration and pod development, as groundnut pods develop underground. Similar increases in yield under broad bed furrow systems due to improved soil conditions have also been reported by Sathiya et al. (2020) [14] . The broad bed furrow provided a loose soil mass with adequate soil moisture, thereby creating favourable conditions for crop growth. Furthermore, a positive correlation between water use efficiency and pod yield has been reported by Bharade et al. (2019) [2] supporting the yield advantage observed under BBF.

Effect of land configuration practices on Toria Yield attributes and yields:

The number of branch plant-1, number of siliqua plant-1, number of seed siliqua-1, test weight, seed yield, stover yield and harvest index of toria were recorded highest in T₇ (BBF 150-30cm, GN-Toria) which was followed by T₄ (BBF 120-30cm, GN-Toria). While, T₁₀ (BBF Flat bed, GN-Toria) maintain the lowest number of branch plant-1, number of siliqua plant-1, number of seed siliqua-1, test weight, seed yield, stover yield, biological yield and harvest index as shown in table 3 and4.

Effect of land configuration practices on Pea Yield attributes and yields:

The highest number of branch plant-1, number of pod plant-1, number of seed pod-1, seed index, pod yield, stover yield and harvest index of pea were found in T₈ (BBF 150-30cm, GN-Pea) which was followed by T₅ (BBF 120-30cm, GN-Pea).While, the lowest number of branch plant-1, number of pod plant-1, number of seed pod-1, seed index, pod yield, stover yield and harvest index were found in T₁₁ (BBF Flat bed, GN-Pea) as shown in table 3 and4.

Effect of land configuration practices on Rajmah

Yield attributes and yields: The maximum number of branch plant-1, number of pod plant-1, number of seed pod-1, seed index, pod yield, stover yield and harvest index of rajmah were found in T₉ (BBF 150-30cm, GN-Rajmah) which was followed by T₆ (BBF 120-30cm, GN-Rajmah) and the minimum number of branch plant-1, number of pod plant-1, number of seed pod-1, seed index, pod yield, stover yield and harvest index of rajmah were found in T₁₂ (BBF Flat bed, GN-Rajmah) as shown in table 3 and4.

Performance of toria, pea and rajmah

The data recorded on rabi crops viz. toria, pea and rajmah revealed that the yield attributes as well as the yield of different rabi crops were comparatively higher in all the BBF. Among the land configurations, BBF150-30cm produced the highest yields followed by BBF 120-30cm and BBF 90-30cm flat bed recorded the lowest values. The higher residual soil moisture content under BBF treatments might have contributed to the superior performance of rabi crops compared to the flat bed. The BBF system improved soil moisture retention and nutrient availability by directing runoff water into furrows and reduced water stress. Consequently, crops experienced a more favourable growing environment, leading to improved performance, as also reported by Choudhary and Bhagawati, (2019) [5] .

Impact of land configuration practices and kharif groundnut-based cropping sequence Groundnut equivalent yield of rabi crops

The groundnut equivalent yield (GEY) was computed and are presented in table 5. GEY were significantly influenced by different land configuration practices. The highest GEY was recorded under BBF 150-30cm while the lowest value was observed under flatbed methods. The higher GEY under BBF treatments may be attributed to improve residual soil moisture availability, which subsequently enhanced the yield of component crops in the cropping sequence. This, in turn, contributed to higher groundnut equivalent yield under these treatments. Similar findings were reported by Tumbare and Bhoite (2000) [16] , where maximum chickpea equivalent yield was recorded with ridges and furrow method of sowing over other methods. The GEY also varied significantly among different crop sequences. The GEY of kharif Groundnut-rajmah was significantly higher than that of kharif Groundnut-pea and kharif Groundnut-toria. Since groundnut was the base and uniform crop across all sequences, variations in GEY were mainly influenced by the yield performance of the succeeding rabi crops, particularly kharif Groundnut-rajmah. In addition, the higher production potential and better market price of rajmah compared to other rabi crops contributed substantially to the higher GEY under this sequence. These findings are in conformity with those of Reddy and Suresh (2009) [13] . Furthermore, according to Pacharne et al. (2015) [12] the increase GEY may be attributed to the favorable residual effect of kharif groundnut, which fixes atmospheric nitrogen through biological processes and enhances nutrient availability for the succeeding crop through mineralization of crop residues, increasing the yield of the subsequent crop.

Groundnut equivalent yield of the system (q ha-1) Total system yield was significantly influenced by different land configuration practices as shown in table 5. System yield was calculated by adding the groundnut yield with the groundnut equivalent yield of the rabi crops. The highest total system yield was recorded under BBF 150-30cm whereas the lowest was observed under the flatbed. Among the cropping sequences kharif Groundnut-rajmah performed the best followed by kharif Groundnut-pea sequence while the lowest system yield was recorded under the kharif Groundnut-toria. Similar findings were also reported by Pacharne et al. (2015) [12] .

Production efficiency

It was observed that the production efficiency (PE) of different cropping systems due to different land configuration practices had a significant impact (Table 7). The highest value was recorded under BBF 150-30cm and the lowest was under flatbed. The increased yield of individual crops as well as their groundnut equivalent yield under the BBF 150-30 cm directly had a positive influence in resulting higher production efficiency of the groundnut-based cropping sequence under the said treatment. The production efficiency differed significantly among the cropping sequences. The maximum production efficiency was recorded under kharif Groundnut-rajmah which was significantly superior to the other cropping sequences whereas kharif Groundnut-toria sequence registered the lowest production efficiency. The contributions of higher groundnut equivalent yield in kharif Groundnut-rajmah sequence was evident when compared to the other sequences, resulting in the highest production efficiency under this cropping sequence. The present findings are in agreement with the findings of Borate et al. (2023) [3] who reported maximum system production efficiency in the sweet corn-rajmah cropping sequence.

Rain water productivity

Different land configuration practices brought about significant variation in rainwater productivity of groundnut-based cropping systems (Table [7] ). BBF 150-30cm recorded the highest rainwater productivity compared to other treatments whereas the lowest value was recorded under the flat bed. The higher rainwater productivity under BBF 150-30cm may be attributed to increased soil moisture availability and higher groundnut equivalent yield of different crops under this treatment. Among the different groundnut-based cropping sequences kharif Groundnut-rajmah registered significantly higher rainwater productivity while kharif Groundnut-toria showed the lowest values. The higher seed yield coupled with greater moisture availability under the kharif Groundnut-rajmah cropping system might have contributed to its superior rainwater productivity Effect of land configuration practices and cropping sequences on soil moisture content

Effect of land configuration practices and cropping sequences on soil moisture content and available NPK

The data pertaining to soil moisture (Table 8) was recorded during the rabi season at 10 days interval as influenced by different land configuration practices and cropping sequence. The soil moisture did not exert any significant variation among the treatments. However, BBF 90-30cm recorded the highest moisture content followed by BBF 120-30cm and BBF 150-30cm compare to flat bed method. This trend is illustrated in Figures 1 and2, where variations in the curves reflect changes in soil moisture content during the rabi cropping period. During that period more conserved moisture was recorded in all the beds irrespective of size as compare to flat bed. Among the broad bed furrows, higher moisture content under BBF 90-30cm may be attributed due to the greater number of furrows as compared to other bed sizes. Available nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium contents at the end of the cropping sequence, as presented in Table 9, differed significantly due to different land configuration practices. Flatbed reveal the highest N, P, K while the lowest value was observed under BBF 150-30cm.This may be attributed to greater nutrient and water uptake by crops under BBF treatments, resulting in higher yields. Similar findings were reported by Mandal et al. (2019) [11] that increased production was associated with higher nitrogen uptake, indicating that a combination of higher irrigation regime and soil N treatment resulted in enhanced uptake due to optimal accessible moisture and nitrogen to the groundnut crop. Cropping sequences did not significantly influence the available phosphorus or potassium levels at the end of the cropping sequence except for nitrogen (Table 9). Among the cropping sequences, kharif groundnut-pea resulted in significantly higher available nitrogen compared to groundnut-toria and groundnutrajmah. This increase may be attributed to the ability of legumes to enhance soil fertility through symbiotic association with microorganisms such as Rhizobium which fix atmospheric nitrogen and make it available to the host plant and subsequent crops through biological nitrogen fixation. This results are in conformity with the findings Kebede (2021) [10] .

Economics of land configuration practices and kharif groundnut-based cropping sequences

The economics (Table 10) of the kharif groundnut-based cropping sequence were significantly impacted by various land configurations. The treatment BBF 90-30cm incurred the highest cost of cultivation followed by BBF 120-30cm and BBF 150-30cm. This was mainly due to the expense of creating wide bed furrows in accordance with closure, the enlarged bed sizes and the labour requirement. In contrast, flat bed method recorded the lowest cultivation cost. BBF 150-30 cm registered significantly higher gross return, net return and benefit cost ratio compare to other methods of planting. The higher gross return, net return and benefit-cost ratio were attributed to higher yields of kharif groundnut-rajmah. Similar findings were reported by Borde et al. (2022) [4] where superior economic returns under the broad bed furrow method compared to conventional and flat bed methods of sowing Among the cropping sequences, kharif Groundnut-rajmah recorded the highest cost of cultivation, gross return and net return followed by the crop sequence kharif Groundnut-pea while the lowest was recorded kharif Groundnut-toria. However, the differences in B: C ratios due to different crop sequences. The higher gross and net return under kharif Groundnut-rajmah was mainly due to higher production potential and better market price of rajmah. Similar trends were reported by Borate et al. (2023) [3] where among different cropping sequences, sweet cornrajmah cropping sequence contributed higher net returns and B: C ratio. The economic efficiency was recorded the highest in BBF 150-30cm followed by BBF 120-30cm while the lowest economic efficiency was recorded under flat bed. The higher yield of the individual crops which led to generate higher net returns under the treatment BBF 150-30cm which directly contributed to higher economic efficiency under the said treatments. Among the crop sequences, kharif Groundnut-rajmah showed the highest economic efficiency compared to other crop sequences, mainly due to its shorter crop duration coupled with higher net return of rajmah. Similar finding was also reported by Borate et al. (2023) [3] . The lowest economic efficiency was obtained under kharif Groundnut-toria. #Siliqua parameters apply to toria; pod parameters apply to pea and rajmah. Price of groundnut: Rs. 6377/q, Price of toria: Rs. 4650/q, Price of pea: Rs. 7550/q, Price of rajmah: Rs. 8000

Conclusion

Based on the two season of investigation (2023-2024) carried out in the research experimental field of the AICRP on dryland Agriculture, it could be concluded that growing of sequence crops in different land configuration is feasible and economically beneficial. The land configuration practices of broad bed furrow were effective in relation to yield attributes and yield of kharif groundnut and different rabi crops (toria, pea and rajmah) grown after kharif groundnut. Among the beds, the bed size of BBF 150cm x 30cm was found best. The practice had not only influenced the crop performance but also helped in conserving soil moisture, soil chemical properties along with higher economic return. The kharif groundnut-rajmah was the most performing crop sequence in terms of higher system yield with better production efficiency and economic return which was followed by kharif Groundnut-pea sequence. Thus, kharif Groundnut-pea could also be advocated as an alternative to rajmah in rabi season in rainfed upland situations of Assam.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementsSincere thanks to Dr. P.K Sarma, Chief Scientist, All India Coordinated Research Project on Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), BNCA for providing the experimental research plot in AICRPDA research field of BNCA. The authors remains indebted Professor and Head, Department of Agriculture Meteorology, BN College of Agriculture, AAU, Jorhat for providing the meteorological data during the study period. Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), BNCA for providing the experimental research plot in AICRPDA research field of BNCA. The authors remains indebted Professor and Head, Department of Agriculture Meteorology, BN College of Agriculture, AAU, Jorhat for providing the meteorological data during the study period.

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