Browsing by Author "Idol, T. W."

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  • Conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS) in tribal societies of India
    Roul, Pravat K.; Ray, P.; Mohanty, T. R.; Mishra, K. N.; Chan-Halbrendt, Catherine; Idol, T. W.; Pradhan, Aliza; Ray, Chittaranjan (Bhubaneswar, India: Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), 2012)
    Tribal farming systems in India and Nepal, which rely on traditional shifting cultivation, are unsustainable, resulting in the degeneration of natural resources and lowered production efficiency. Conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS), which stresses minimal soil movement, retention of adequate levels of crop residues on the soil surface, and crop rotation, offers a long-term solution to boost yields and conserve the environment. This presentation introduces the first year results of on-station CAPS trials and experimental farm plots in Odisha, India and announces the trials in progress in Nepal. The objective of the studies in India was to evaluate the feasibility of introducing CAPS to farmers in Kendujhar, a district of Odisha. The researchers conducted participatory studies and analytical hierarchy process before conducting on-farm research. This research involved the application of maize+cowpea intercropping, mustard cover cropping, and minimum tillage. In Nepal, they experimented with a rotation of maize with black gram, millet, or black gram + Millet under strip or conventional tillage. The Economic, gender, networking, and capacity building analyses conducted at each location are also described.
  • Impact of Maize-based conservation agriculture system on soil properties in North Central Plateau Zone of Odisha
    Nabanita, B.; Nayak, R. K.; Mishra, K. N.; Roul, Pravat K.; Dash, S. N.; Behera, M. M.; Chan-Halbrendt, Catherine; Idol, T. W. (Bhubaneswar, India: Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), 2012)
    The North Central Plateau zone of Odisha has an undulating topography and under high rainfall zone of the state. The soils of this area are subjected to various kinds of soil degradation. The farmers of this zone are traditionally growing maize as the only rainfed crop. Conservation agriculture practice involving minimum tillage, legume based intercropping and a follow up cover crop has been thought of as the best possible long term solution for this region to maintain the natural resources and environmental quality. To study the impact of maize based cropping system with cover crops under conventional and minimum tillage practices, a field experiment was conducted on the loamy soils of Regional Research and Technology Transfer Station, OUAT at Kendujhar district during 2011-12. Conventional (CT) and minimum (MT) tillage with maize (M) and maize + cowpea (M+C) were taken in main plots during kharif and horsegram (H), mustard (M) and fallow (F) in sub-plots during rabi. Soil samples were collected before and after kharif and rabi to study the impact of the treatments on soil BD, pH, OC and available N, P, K, Ca and Mg. The yield and nutrient uptake by crops were correlated with the soil properties. The practice of MT reduced the BD in the tune of 0.007 Mgm-3 and increased the pH (0.2 units), OC (0.29 g kg-1), available indices viz. N (4.5 kg ha-1), P (0.06 kg ha-1), K (4.8 kg ha-1), ca{0.46 c mol (p+) kg-1} and Mg {0.32 c mol (p+) kg-1} over CT after harvest of kharif crops. Growing horsegran (H) as cover crop during rabi, reduced the BD (0.001 Mgm-3) and increased pH (0.01 units), OC (0.03 g kg-1) and available nutrient viz. N (0.5 kg ha-1), P (0.02 kg ha-1), K (0.2 kg ha-1), Ca { 0.02 c mol (p+) kg-1} and Mg {0.03 c mol (p+) kg -1} over mustard (M) as cover crop. Maximum uptake of N (150 kg ha-1) and P (17.2 kg ha-1) was observed in CT-M+C-H where as the highest uptake of K (123.8 kg ha-1) was obtained in CT-M+C-M treatment. Though maximum maize equivalent yield of 85.8 q ha-1 was obtained from CT-M+C-M treatment in the first year, a slow and gradual improvement in soil properties were observed by practice of minimum tillage with maize + cowpea intercrop followed by horsegram as cover crop.
  • Influence of maize-based conservation agricultural practices (CAPs) on productivity, profitability and soil fertility in rain-fed uplands of Odisha
    Roul, Pravat K.; Ray, P.; Mishra, K. N.; Dash, S. N.; Barik, E.; Chan-Halbrendt, Catherine; Idol, T. W.; Pradhan, Aliza; Ray, Chittaranjan (Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, OUAT, 2012)
    A field experiment on “Influence of Maize-based conservation agricultural practices (CAPs) on productivity, profitability and soil fertility” conducted during the rainy and post rainy season of 2011-12 in rainfed uplands of Odisha, India revealed that growing Maize with cowpea under minimum tillage could produce 50.1 qha-1 of grain yield being comparable to sole maize under conventional tillage (52.1qha-1). But the yield of green pods from cowpea grown in association with maize under conventional tillage invariably remained superior to its yield under minimum tillage producing 32.3% higher yield than minimum tillage (12.4 q ha-1). The system productivity expressed as maize equivalent yield (MEY) revealed that growing maize+cowpea under minimum tillage followed by toria as cover crop (99.08 qha-1 MEY) was similar to maize+cowpea under conventional tillage followed by toria (101.33 qha-1 MEY). Minimum tillage-Maize+cowpea followed by horse gram (83.04 qha-1 MEY) and Conventional tillage-Maize+cowpea followed by horse gram (83.80 qha-1 MEY), though had productivity next to the former two treatments, were also similar. But all these treatments were significantly superior to growing sole maize under conventional tillage without any cover crop (52.10 q ha-1 MEY). The gross return, net return and return per rupee invested from maize+cowpea intercropping either under conventional tillage or under minimum tillage were similar but superior to growing sole maize under these two contrasting tillage situations. Moreover, toria as a cover crop in post rainy season was adjudged as the best in comparison to horse gram and no cover crop for all these economic parameters. The soil fertility parameters viz. pH, BD and Organic Carbon revealed that the practice of Minimum tillage reduced the BD to the tune of 1.4% over the initial status (1.22 Mgm-3) and increased the Organic Carbon by 4.9% (initial contents: 6.9 g kg-1). Thus growing maize+cowpea under minimum tillage followed by toria is superior in terms of productivity, profitability and soil fertility.