Abstract

The field experiments were conducted at Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (DRMR), Bharatpur, India to evaluate the effect of crop establishment methods on crop productivity, soil properties and economics of mustard in a cropping system mode. Conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT), zero tillage (ZT) and permanent furrow irrigated raised beds (FIRB) were tested for five mustard-based cropping systems viz., fallow-mustard, green manure-mustard, brown manure-mustard, clusterbean-mustard and pearl millet-mustard in split-plot design replicated thrice. The seed, stover, total biological yields, sustainability indices and economics of mustard were significantly influenced by various crop establishment methods and cropping systems. Soil carbon footprints and bulk density of semi-arid regions improved under conservation agriculture. The average increase in the seed yield of mustard after four years of the experimentation was 32.4 and 20.7%, respectively, under FIRB and ZT. The highest sustainability yield index (0.85) and production efficiency (16.01 kg/ha/day) were also observed under FIRB. An increase of 1.30 g/kg and 2.57 Mg/ha in soil organic carbon and mass of soil organic carbon, respectively, was recorded in ZT over CT. The highest mustard yield was obtained under green manure-mustard cropping system (2549 kg/ha) followed by clusterbean-mustard system (2348 kg/ha). The net returns, profitability and B: C ratio were recorded highest with FIRB and green manure-mustard cropping systems.