System productivity, profitability, nutrient uptake and soil health under tillage, nutrient and weed management in rainfed chickpea (Cicer arietinum)-fodder sorghum (Sorghum bicolour) cropping system

A field experiment was conducted during winter (rabi) 2010-11 to rainy season (kharit) 2013 at Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh to study the effect of tillage practices, nutrient management and weed control in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)-fodder sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] cropping system under rainfed conditions. Pooled data of 3 years study revealed that reduced tillage recorded significantly higher weed count, i.e. 6.56 broad leaf weeds and 5.56 grassy weeds/m(2) during the winter (rabi) and higher grassy weeds count (10.52 weeds/m(2)) and weed dry-matter (297.6 kg/ha) during the rainy season (kharit) than conventional tillage. Reduced tillage and conventional tillage recorded statistically similar chickpea equivalent yield (CEY) of chickpea and system productivity and protein yield of system. However, reduced tillage recorded significantly higher chickpea equivalent yield of fodder sorghum (1.11 t/ha) and nutrient uptake (119.2 kg N and 5.50 kg P/ha). Application of 50% of recommended dose of nutrients (RDN) through chemical fertilizers + 5 t FYM/ha in chickpea fodder sorghum cropping system recorded significantly higher chickpea-equivalent yield of chickpea (1.08 t/ha), fodder sorghum (1.17 t/ha) and system (2.26 t/ha), protein yield (914 kg/ha) and nutrient uptake (163.2 kg N, 8.9 kg P, 168.0 kg K and 12.5 kg S/ha) of the cropping system. Twice manual weeding recorded 25.6 and 14.9% lower weed count and weed dry matter yield during the winter (rabi) season and 25.1 and 17.8% lower weed count and weed dry-matter yield during the rainy (kharit) season, respectively, than application of recommended herbicides. Although twice manual weeding gave 11.2% higher chickpea-equivalent yield than herbicidal weed management but due to higher cost of cultivation ((sic)44,913/ha) under manual weeding, application of recommended herbicide in chickpea-fodder sorghum system was profitable because it gave higher net returns ((sic)18,952/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (0.50). Soil fertility status, viz. organic carbon and available NPKS, also improved over their initial status with integrated use of tillage, nutrient and weed management in chickpea-fodder sorghum cropping system.