Crop and varietal diversification for enhancing productivity and profitability of rice fallow system in eastern Himalayan region

Rice fallow is predominant system in eastern Himalaya, a reason for low agricultural productivity in the region. In north eastern regions of India, farmers grow rice crop during rainy season (June to November) and keep the land fallow after rice harvest in the post-rainy season (November to May) due to inadequate irrigation water availability and insufficient rainfall. There was an urgent need to develop location specific crop diversification plan suitable to existing conditions with appropriate crops and their varieties. Crop diversification is also required to mitigate the effect of climate change. Moisture conservation practices like zero tillage and residue retention as mulch reduce carryover time between two crops and ensure moisture availability in the soils for low water requiring crops. Therefore, attempts were made to develop suitable crop diversification options under rice fallow areas with promising cultivars of oilseed and pulse crops. A field experiment was conducted to assess productivity, profitability and soil health of rice fallow land under diversified sequential cropping pattern. The results reveal that inclusion of pea, lentil and rapeseed with minimum tillage and mulching under rice fallow system recorded highest net return ((sic) 71.28 x 10(3), (sic) 72.65 x 10(3) and (sic) 29.26 x 10(3), respectively). Seed productivity enhancement was 47.5, 61.7 in rapeseed, 31.0, 52.1 in pea and 39.0, 56.0 in lentil under minimum tillage, and minimum tillage with mulching over farmers' practice. Improved management practices (minimum tillage and mulching) also recorded remarkable net return of 69.3, 66.6 and 84.8% over farmers existing practices in rapeseed, pea and lentil crops, respectively. The soil fertility status after harvest of the crops improved in the agro-technique with minimum tillage and mulching.