Productivity and Profitability of Sesame / Green Gram / Urdbean – Mustard Based Cropping Systems under Moisture Conservation Practices

A field experiments was conducted on sandy loam soil during 2016 -17 and 2017 -18 at M.G. chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya, Chitrakoot, Satna (M.P.) to find out the most productive and profitable mustard based cropping system under different moisture conservation practices. Treatment consisted three cropping systems viz. Sesame –mustard, green gram-mustard and urdbean –mustard and four moisture conservation practices (no irrigation, life saving irrigation, straw mulch @4 t/ha and kaolin 5% spray). Results revealed that on pooled basis of two years mulching @4 t/ha produced significantly higher grain yield of sesame (512 kg/ha), green gram (1023 kg/ha) urdbean (2349 kg/ha) and mustard (2558kg/ha) than no irrigation while numerical enhancement were recorded under life saving irrigation and kaolin 5 % spray treatment in seed yield of sesame, green gram, urdbean and mustard crop. The maximum mustard equivalent grain yield of 3759 kg/ha, system production efficiency of 33.52 kg/ha/day and system profitability of 339.00 Rs/ha/day was recorded under green gram – mustard system. Among the moisture conservation practices, straw mulch treatment had highest mustard equivalent grain yield of 4021 kg/ha, production efficiency of 35.83 kg/ha/day and system profitability (35.83 Rs/ha/day). The gross returns (Rs 182764/ha), net returns (Rs 139644/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (3.24) were maximized under green gram- mustard system x straw mulch @4 t/ha treatment on pooled basis.