Productivity and Economics of Seasonal and Adsali Sugarcane Based Intercropping Systems Under Natural Organic and Conventional Farming Practices

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Hukkeri (Dist. Belagavi) during 2019-20 and 2020-21 on medium black clay loam soil to study the effect of different farming practices, spacings and intercropping systems on productivity and economics of seasonal and adsali sugarcane. The experiment was laid out in split - split plot design with eighteen treatment combinations replicated thrice. The cultivar used was Co 86032. The treatments included three farming practices in main plot viz., M1 : recommended package of practices (RPP), M2 : organic farming (OF) and M3 : natural farming (NF); two spacings in sub plots viz., S1 : 60-180-60 cm × 60 cm (PRP - paired row planting) and S2 : 240 cm × 60 cm (WRP - wider row planting) and three intercropping systems in sub sub plots were taken viz., sugarcane + onion turmeric (I1), sugarcane + onion + cowpea + coriander + green chilli (I2) and sole sugarcane (I3) in seasonal planting, whereas, in adsali planting three intercropping systems viz., sugarcane + soybean - chickpea - turmeric (I1), sugarcane + onion + cowpea + coriander + green chilli (I2) and sole sugarcane (I3) were taken. Among the farming practices, RPP recorded significantly higher number of millable canes (73.04 and 85.69 thousand ha-1), cane yield (93.8 and 137.8 t ha-1), commercial cane sugar yield (CCS) (12.74 and 18.90 t ha-1) and net returns (and#8377; 244855 and 317423 ha-1) in seasonal and adsali planted sugarcane, respectively when compared to organic farming and natural farming practices. Between two spacings, paired row planting (S1 : 60-180-60 cm × 60 cm) recorded significantly higher number of millable canes (83.77 and 85.83 thousand ha-1), cane yield (100.9 and 136.5 t ha-1), CCS yield (13.72 and 18.49 t ha-1) and net returns (and#8377; 214718 and 284511 ha-1) in seasonal and adsali planted sugarcane, respectively than wider row planting (S2 : 240 cm × 60 cm). Among the intercropping systems, sugarcane + onion turmeric (I1) recorded significantly higher sugarcane equivalent