D. Anitha, C. Ravikumar , R. Krishnamoorthy and P. Senthilvalavan
Abstract
Cereal + legume mixture is an ideal crop mixture regarding mutualism and soil health. Hence, it is worthwhile to find the best combination of pearl millet intercropped with short- duration grain legume crop. Nutrient-related stress is becoming increasingly widespread in many soils due to the non-use of organic manures and the indiscriminate use of high-analysis fertilizers, leading to low crop productivity. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to have the appropriate combination of inorganic fertilizers with organic manures to sustain crop productivity. A study with respect to the combined effect of integrated nutrients on pearl millet-based intercropping is lacking. With these backgrounds, a field experiment was conducted at Annamalai University Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Annamalai Nagar to study the economically viable and practically feasible nutrient management practices for pearl millet + greengram intercropping system during kharif (July to October) 2023. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with seven treatment combinations and replicated thrice. The treatments consisted of different farming practices and methods of planting, viz., No-till farming, Organic farming, Conventional farming with INM, and Conventional farming without INM under direct sown and transplanted condition. Among the different farming practices, the treatment conventional farming with INM (Transplanted) (T4) significantly recorded the highest system production efficiency i.e., pearl millet equivalent yield, production efficiency and economic efficiency. The lowest values were recorded under the treatment of no-till farming (T1).