Response of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to organic farming package under dryland conditions

An experiment was carried out at AICRP Project on Dryland Agriculture, JNKVV, Kuthulia Farm, Rewa (M.P.) during Rabi season of 2005-06. The experiment was laid out in Randomized block design with four treatments comprising four replications. The chickpea variety JG- 322 was grown. Although the organic farming package T3 having 1/3 recom. N as FYM+ vermicompost+ linseed oil cake+ intercropping with mustard gave the maximum yield-attributes and yield but the net return was highest up to Rs. 18642/ha (B:C ratio 1: 3.86) from package T2 having the same inputs as in T3 except intercropping. Thus, the best organic farming package T2 was 2t FYM/ha (i.e.1/3 recom. N) +1.6 t vermicompost/ha +8.33 kg linseed oil cake/ha for securing highest net income from chickpea grown under dryland conditions of Kymore plateau region. The soil moisture tended to decrease with the increase of crop growth period till crop maturity and tended to increase with the increase of soil depth from 0 to 45 cm under each growth stage of observation. It was interesting to note that intercropping of mustard though increased the yield but the cost of intercropping reduced the net returns.