Field pea
Insect pests of gram and pea
Pod borer Helicoverpa armigera, cut worm Agrotis ipsilon and leaf miner and semilooper were observed as the the major lepidopteran pests of gram and pea, respectively. On an average pod borer causes 20-40% damage to gram annually.
Among various botanicals and conventional insecticides evaluated for their efficacy on pea aphids, imidacloprid @ 0.5 ml/l was highly effective in controlling the aphids to the extent of 95%, followed by dimethoate, achook, nimbicidine, karanjin, neem oil and anonin over control.
rice after harvest of summer crop was also assessed.
It was observed that adoption of different crops significantly influenced grain yield of rice (Table 1). Maximum grain yield was recorded with rice- fallow system followed by rice-frenchbean (4.81 t/ha). The lowest rice yield was found with rice- maize grown for green cobs or grain purpose.
Evaluation of rice based cropping system on permanent raised bed
Upland rice based cropping systems were studied on permanent raised bed. Twelve cropping sequences were evaluated in RBD with three replications. It was observed that cropping intensity of 200 and 300 % markedly increased system productivity as compared to 100% cropping intensity (rice-fallow). Among the cropping system, rice-vegetable-vegetable and rice-vegetable based cropping sequences recorded maximum system productivity. Maximum rice equivalent yield (REY) of 40.19 t/ha was registered with rice-pea- frenchbean followed by rice-toria-tomato (35.93 t/ha). The rice-toria was the poor yielder recording 5.40 t/ha REY, which was however, 40.12% higher over rice-fallow, indicated that double or triple cropping sequence were more productive than mono cropping.
Effect of height and width of raised bed The experiment was continued to work out suitable size of raised bed for increasing land use efficiency of marshy land areas. In the first experiment the effect of width of raised bed and crops was assessed in terms of growth and productivity of lowland rice grown in sunken beds.
There were four width of raises bed (1, 2, 3 and 4 meter) in main plots, while four crops maize, rice, soybean and groundnut were arranged in subplot.
The treatments were tested in two factors, split plot design with three replications. The results revealed that width of raised bed did not exert significant influence on the grain yield of sunken bed rice, while the crops, grown on raised bed had significant influence on the yield of rice gown in sunken bed.
Maximum reduction in yield of sunken bed rice was observed with maize crop grown on raised bed followed by rice. Groundnut was found to exert least influence on sunken bed rice recording
maximum sunken bed rice yield with groundnut followed by soybean.
The effect of height of raised beds on the growth and yield of crops was also assessed. Four raised bed heights i.e. 10, 20, 30 and 40 cm were kept in main plots and four crops (maize, rice, soybean and groundnut) were arranged in sub plot. The treatments were tested in Split Plot Design with 3 replications. The data revealed that at 10 cm raised bed height all the crops showed lowest yield except rice. As the height of raised beds increased the yield of maize, groundnut and frenchbean increased up to a raised bed height of 30 cm. The yield further improved at 40 cm raise bed height but the difference was not significant During rabi season, raised beds of 0 , 10, 20, 30 and 40 cm above moisture levels were kept in main plots and pea, lentil, toria, mustard and rajmash were arranged in sub plots. The treatments were tested in two factors Split Plot Design with three replications. The yields of all the crops were converted in to pea equivalent yield (PEY). It was observed that at 0 cm raised bed height, al the crops showed very poor yield, which at 30 cm, the yield was recorded maximum, The yield recorded at 40 cm was comparable with 30 cm raised bed height. Amongst the crops, maximum yield in terms οf PEY was recoded with rajmash and pea. While the, lowest yield was recorded with toria.
Development of cole crops based intercropping system
In cole crops, wide space between rows was utilized by growing of pea, methi, coriander, radish and carrot. These crops were also sown as sole crops for comparison. The treatments were tested in RBD with three replications. It was observed that intercropping system significantly influenced the total system productivity of raised bed.
Maximum system productivity in terms of cabbage equivalent yield (CEY) of 43.30 t/ha was recorded with cabbage+pea, followed by cabbage+methi (419.65). Growing of radish not only decrease the yield of cabbage but total system productivity was reduced to the tune of 8.56 per cent as compared to sole cabbage. Amongst the cauliflower based intercropping system, maximum cauliflower equivalent yield of 22.56 t/ha was recorded with
cauliflower+carrot followed by cauliflower+methi.
Cauliflower+radish intercropping system was the poor yielder (15.18 t/ha) cauliflower equivalent yield (CaEY), which was 22.04% lower than cauliflower sole crops.
In broccoli based intercropping system, pea, methi, radish, mustard, lentil and carrot were intercropped. It was observed that total system productivity in terms of broccoli equivalent yield (BEY) of 12.85 t/ha was recorded with broccoli+pea followed by broccoli+lentil.
Broccoli+methi intercropping system was next to it.
Evaluation of rice germplasms under rice-rice cropping system
The varieties Krishna Hamsa, IR-64, Vivek Dhan-82, VL Dhan-61 and Shahsarang-1 were evaluated under rice-rice system (Table 2). It was observed that during pre-kharif season IR-64 and Krishna Hamsa were the highest yielder, while during kharif season Shahsarang-1 and IR-64 registered maximum yield. The maximum system productivity of 8.17 and 7.99 t/ha were recorded with IR-64 – Shahsarang-1 and Krishna Hamsa – Shahsarang-1 indicated the suitability of these crop varieties in rice – rice cropping system under mid hills altitude of Meghalaya. The production efficiency also followed the similar pattern
showing maximum grain production of 28.17 kg/
ha/day with IR-64 – Shahsarang cropping sequence, which was closely followed by 27.08 kg grain/ha/day recorded with Krishna Hamasa - Shahsarng-1. Rice fish system was also standardized for sunken beds. Maximum yield of rice (5.28 t/ha) was observed with rice-fish-Azolla- food system followed by rice-fish-Azolla (Table 3)a. Maximum fish yield of 470 kg/ha was recorded with rice-fish-Azolla-food followed by rice-fish- Azolla (375 kg/ha) and rice-fish-food (375 kg/ha), while maximum fish yield of 935 kg/ha was recorded with fish alone when reared in sunken beds.
Table 3. Production potential of rice+fish system under mid hill altitude conditions
Treatments Rice Fish yield (kg/ha) yield
(t/ha) Common Tilapia Total
carp yield
Rice – alone 4.48 - - -
Rice- Azolla 4.75 - - -
Rice-Fish 4.87 215 70 285
Rice- Azolla -Fish 5.16 280 95 375
Rice-Fish+Food 5.02 285 90 375
Rice- Azolla+Fish+Food 5.28 355 115 470
Fish alone - 680 255 935
Table 2. Performance of rice cultivars in rice-rice cropping sequence
Pre-Kharif Main -Kharif Pre-kharif rice Yield main Total production Production
(t/ha) kharif rice (t/ha) (t/ha) efficiency (kg/ha/day)
Krishna Hamsa Shahsarang-1 3.25 5.1.5 7.99 27.08
IR-64 3.4.7 6.32 22.55
Vivek Dhan-82 3.69 6.53 23.75
VL Dhan-61 3.75 6.59 23.79
IR-64 Shahsarang-1 3.48 5.24 8.17 28.17
IR-64 4.04 6.98 25.36
Vivek Dhan-82 3.76 6.69 24.78
VL Dhan-61 3.81 6.74 24.78
Vivek Dhan - 82 Shahsarang-1 2.85 5.64 5.64 19.59
IR-64 4.50 4.50 16.20
Vivek Dhan-82 3.68 3.68 13.22
VL Dhan-61 3.8.1 3.81 13.94
VL Dhan - 61 Shahsarang-1 2.94 5.53 5.53 19.07
IR-64 3.88 3.88 14.09
Vivek Dhan-82 3.95 3.95 14.35
VL Dhan-61 3.88 3.88 14.37
Evaluation of promising maize based cropping system for raised bed
Permanent raised bed carved out in marshy land by cut and fill methods were used for identification of promising cropping sequences. Twelve cropping sequences were tested in RBD with three replications. It was observed that maize based cropping sequences significantly improved system productivity as compared to maize-fallow (the most common practice of the region). Maximum maize equivalent yield (MEY) of 34.44 t/ha was recorded with maize-frenchbean-radish followed by maize- greengram-radish (21.65 t/ha). It was observed that adoption of vegetable (pea, frenchbean) in the cropping sequence markedly increased the MEY as compared to non-vegetable based cropping sequences under study.