<div>Background: Freshwater in sufficient quantity and adequate quality is a prerequisite for human societies and natural ecosystems. To adequately feed 9.3 billion people in 2050, consumptive water use (i.e. transpired water) by all food and fodder crops needs to increase from its present estimated level of 7000 km3/year to 12,586 km3/year. However, fresh water resources are increasingly getting scarce because of increased competition among a multitude of users. Getting agriculture to perform with progressively smaller allocation of renewable water resources will remain a challenge on global scale. To meet the challenge there is an urgent need to improve the crop water productivity to ensure the sustainability of agriculture. 
 
Methods: An experiment was carried out at village Menawali, Hanumangarh, Rajasthan during both kharif and rabi seasons to assess productivity, economics, N-uptake and water use of different crops. An area of 187 ha comprising 25 farmers irrigated by common irrigation channels were selected to collect the information. The information required i.e. soil, crop management, growth, phonological, yields, water balance, N-uptake and water use efficiency of each crops were collected from 15 farmers. Bt-cotton and clusterbean of kharif and wheat and Indian mustard in rabi were prominent crops, cotton-wheat, cotton-mustard, clusterbean-wheat and clusterbean-mustard were major cropping sequences of the study region. 
 
Result: In kharif season, Bt-cotton gave higher economic yields than clusterbean and amongst rabi season crops, economic yields of wheat and mustard were 4255, 1778 kg/ha, respectively. The economic yield of cropping sequences varied from 3741-6514 kg/ha and were higher for cotton-wheat (6218 kg/ha), intermediate for clusterbean-wheat (5785 kg/ha) and lower for cotton-mustard (3741 kg/ha) and clusterbean-mustard (3308 kg/ha). The cotton-wheat (₹1181.2 mm) sequence had highest water use. Clusterbean-wheat cropping system recorded highest water productivity (16.5 kg/ha mm) followed by clusterbean-mustard (14.9 kg/ha mm). The clusterbean-mustard (₹456/ha mm) cropping sequence was most profitable and fetched highest net return followed by clusterbean-wheat (₹383/ha mm).</div>

Assessing Crop and Water Productivity Performance of Different Crops and Cropping Systems

Background: Zinc, an essential micronutrient performing a key function in agricultural system, influencing crop yield, nutritional valueand overall development and growth of plants. Intercropping is referring to the most important practices to improving land utilization rates in India, which has limited arable land resources.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: The study aim to investigate the effect of different zinc levels on yield and qualitative characteristics of maize and soybean in 2:2 strip intercropping. The field study was conducted during kharif 2023 at Lovely Professional University, Punjab. The experiment was conducted with a set of nine treatments in randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. 
 
Result: The results revealed that the maximum yield and yield attributes such as cobs per plant (1.44), number of rows per cob (13.81), number of grains per row (25.07), number of grains per cob (372.28) and grain yield (17.47 q ha-1), number of pods per plant (35.31), number of seed per pod (2.82), number of seeds per plant (95.33), seed index (13.02). Maximum maize equivalent yield (48.57 q ha-1), maize production efficiency (18.39 kg ha-1 day-1), soybean production efficiency (12.06 kg ha-1 day-1) were recorded in T9 (soil supplementation of 19 kg ha-1 of ZnSO4 + foliar spray of 0.2% ZnSO4). In contrast, T2 (sole maize) showed the highest grain yield (32.33 q ha-1), stover yield (67.57 q ha-1), biological yield (96.80 q ha-1). Similarly, T1 (sole soybean) showed the highest pod yield (24.97 q ha-1), haulm yield (51.18 q ha-1), biological yield (76.15 q ha-1) but lower values for other parameters compared to T9. Applying zinc significantly rises the zinc concentration in maize grains, stover (24.92 to 28.05 mg kg-1, 26.90 to 35.25 mg kg-1), soybean pods, haulm (23.92 to 35.03 mg kg-1, 25.95 to 41.38 mg kg-1), with variations across treatments.

Enhancing Crop Yield and Nutritional Values Through Zinc Biofortification in Maize-soybean Strip Intercropping System

<div style="text-align: justify;">Improved and efficient irrigation water management through precise estimation of crop water requirement has a vital role to play in ensuring food security. However, the crop water requirement data of field crops are not locally available. In view of this, present investigation was aimed at quantifying the crop water requirement of rabi and kharif season crops grown under paired row planting in different agro climatic conditions of Madhya Pradesh. The crop water requirement was calculated based on the already developed crop coefficient and reference evapotranspiration. Daily weather data of 35 years (1979 to 2013) for twenty districts of Madhya Pradesh was collected to determine the reference evapotranspiration using Aquacrop model. The study revealed that the daily ETo increased continuously from 1st SMW to its maximum values during 21st-22nd SMW, thereafter decreased sharply and remains low from 30th to 34th SMW in all selected districts. The highest value of ETo (11.0 mm day-1) was found in Datia at 21st SMW and lowest in Betul i.e. 2.2 mm day-1 at 32nd SMW. The daily water requirement estimates showed that the water requirement of chickpea, wheat and lentil i.e. 1.73 lpd, 0.70 lpd and 0.49 lpd respectively is highest in Jabalpur. Sugarcane has the highest water requirement 13.56 lpd in Narsinghpur during mid season. &nbsp;In all kharif crops cotton has highest water requirement 6.53 lpd in Harda followed by sesame and groundnut i.e. 2.75 lpd and 2.46 lpd respectively in Datia. These results can be used in efficient management of irrigation water under drip irrigation system in selected district of Madhya Pradesh. &nbsp;</div>

Study on crop water requirement of field crops under different climatic conditions of Madhya Pradesh

<div style="text-align: justify;">Homestead farming has been the backbone agricultural economy of Kerala but the &nbsp;productivity of the homesteads in Kerala has yet to reach an &nbsp;acceptable &nbsp;level. In this paper the possibility of increasing the contribution of this sector through proper crop planning is sought. The optimum model was developed by using linear programming (LP) technique. The constraints included in the analysis were total area, intercropped area, investment amount and population of each enterprise. The optimum model reveal the scope of 22.83 per cent enhancement in net return as compared to net return from the existing plan. Sensitivity analysis of the optimum model revealed that further enhancement of net return in The agro-ecological region could be achieved by increasing the cropping intensity in the underutilized intercropped area and changing the binding enterprises.</div>

Determination of optimum crop mix for crop cultivation in Kerala homesteads

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: Crop concentration focuses on the pre-dominance of certain crops over other crops in a specific area under study. On the other hand, crop diversification refers to the various types of crops grown in a specific time period under the study area. If the numbers of different types of crops grown in an area during a specified time period is more, the area will have the higher crop diversification and vice versa. So, crop concentration and crop diversification reveal changing pattern of competition among various crops for getting prominence over other crops. 
Methods: The present study was initiated to have an analysis of present situation regarding the crop concentration and crop diversification in Birbhum district of West Bengal over the years of 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 through interpretation of the data related with the area, production and productivity data of the major crops of the district obtained from the Govt. of India data source. (aps.dac.gov.in/APY/Public&shy;_Report1.apx). In this study, the crop concentration of Birbhum district is delineated with the help of the crop concentration Index of Bhatia (1965) and crop diversification is assessed with the help of the Gibbs and Martin Index of diversification (1962). 
Result: The present study clearly finds out that the crop concentration index of Birbhum district is low as the mean of the Indices is 34.01 with corresponding standard deviation (SD) of 0.2997 and co-efficient of variance (CV) of Indices is as low as 0.0088 over a period of five years from 2012-13 to 2016-17. This study also reveals that in Birbhum district only 2 crops having more than 10 per centage point share in the gross cropped area (GCA) of the district provides the farmers a wide scope of farming various different crops or group of crops. The present study also points out that the district has a fairly diversified pallet of crops as the Mean value of crop diversification indices is 00.64754 with a standard deviation of as negligible as 00.0001 with a minute CV of Indices of 00.00016 for the time period of 5 years i.e. from 2012-13 to 2016-17, having potential for further well planned diversification of the crops.</div>

Crop Concentration and Crop Diversification in Birbhum District of West Bengal: Recent Situations

Competing uses of crop residues and suggesting their management is one of the conservation agricultural practices which have a very efficient strategy to increase the soil fertility and crop productivity. Among the available organic sources of plant nutrients, crop residue is one of the most important sources for supplying nutrients to the crop and for improving soil health besides increasing the organic matter of the soil. Crop residue enhances the physical and chemical characteristics of soils and, in general, serves as a steady source of food for the fauna, flora and many creatures that inhabit the soil. The slope of the farmland determines how much crop residue is left on the farm. As a result, farmlands with steep slopes require a lot of crop leftovers, whereas farmlands with moderate slopes require fewer crop residues. The maintenance and productivity of the farmland, which results in fertile farmland and improved crop output, may be achieved if the principal obstacles pertaining to uses of agricultural leftovers were resolved.

Enhancing Soil Fertility and Crop Productivity through Crop Residue Management: A Review

<div>Deleterious effects of climatic changes and diverse environmental conditions, possess a major threat to agriculture in terms of growth and yield. So, to meet these challenges, there is a need to develop new crop varieties containing traits resistant against abiotic and biotic stresses and enhanced input use efficiency. Compared with domesticated cultivars, crop wild relatives maintains much higher level of genetic diversity. The high nutrient and bioactive content of many wild edible plants make them valued contributors for balanced diet and play significant role in human nutrition. In this review article, we discussed the importance of crop wild relative in crop improvement programs by giving examples of wild relatives that have been used to enhance abiotic and biotic stress tolerance and yield in various crop species. The advancement in DNA sequence technology enables plant breeders to produce high quality food. Further, combination of re-sequencing and de novo sequencing are efficiently used to explore genomic variation in crop wild relatives and moreover the genome analysis study results in detection of beneficial alleles in wild relatives which has been lost in cultivated species. Thus, conservation of genetic pool of crop wild relatives is essential to maintain sustainability of agriculture and food production.</div>

Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) a Genetic Pool for Crop Improvement: A Review

<div>Background: Small millets and pulses are world&rsquo;s renowned crops for their nutritional significance. Being an underutilized species; rainfed farmers solely depend on them for their livelihood; which would be enhanced in a planned and efficient cropping system. The current study aimed to the identify suitable inter and sequential crops for rainfed little millet. 
 
Methods: In this study, four cropping patterns with two different row proportions for intercropping [viz., (4:1), (6:1)] were used with little millet as a main crop. The cropping systems include - little millet + pigeonpea [(4:1), (6:1)] followed by a sequential horsegram; little millet + pigeonpea followed by moth bean and little millet + lablab [(4:1), (6:1)] followed by Horsegram and little millet + lablab followed by mothbean.&nbsp; 
 
Result: Among them; a higher grain equivalent yield was observed in little millet + pigeonpea (6:1); followed by horsegram. However, higher dry matter, grain weight and higher individual crop yield was obtained in little millet + pigeonpea (6:1) followed by mothbean. Although individual mono cropping yields of these crops were higher; the pattern with little millet - pigeonpea (6:1) followed by horsegram could be recommended as a methodology to aid higher economic returns in shorter period.</div>

​Effect of Inter and Sequential Cropping of Pulses in Little Millet (Panicum sumatranse L.) based Cropping System

<div>Background: Bangladesh is one of the densely populated countries in the world. To meet up the increasing food demand there&rsquo;s no alternative to increase the cropping intensity through high yielding and short duration crop varieties. Currently, cropping system of Bangladesh is mostly rice based which is also the staple food. Therefore, farmers which follow rice-rice based cropping patterns are gaining less profit day by day. Contrary, intensive rice culture is depleting soil properties gradually. Thus, to preserve soil health and increase profit pulse and oil seed based cropping patterns are crucial for sustaining a cropping pattern. This study was undertaken to find out a cropping pattern with higher yield and profit in the context of Magura district. 
 
Methods: Five cropping patterns, CP1 = Transplanted Aman rice (cv. Binadhan-7)- Mustard (cv. Binasarisha-9)- Boro rice (cv. Binadhan-14); CP2 = T.Aman (cv. Binadhan-16)-Mustard (cv. Binasarisha-10)- Boro (cv. Binadhan-14); CP3 = T.Aman (cv. Binadhan-17) -Mustard (cv. Binasarisha-10)- Boro (cv. Binadhan-14); CP4 = T.Aman (cv. Binadhan-17)-&nbsp;Lentil (cv. Binamasur-8)- Sesame (cv. Binatil-3) and &nbsp;CP5 (Control) -&nbsp;Aman (cv. Shorna) &ndash; Boro (cv. Heera) - fallow were assessed to identify the most suitable and profitable pattern as well as to enhance the cropping intensity by adding a pulse or oil seed crop between two rice crops. The investigation was conducted at farmer&rsquo;s field of Magura during 2018-19. Block farming method was followed for experiment set up.&nbsp; 
 
Result: It was revealed that, maximum rice equivalent yield (REY) was obtained from CP1 (14.46 t/ha) followed by CP4 (13.52 t/ha), CP3 (13.35 t/ha), CP2 (13.09 t/ha) and CP5 (11.33 t/ha) during one year crop cycle. Highest gross margin (Tk. 1,90,189) and MBCR (1.83) was obtained from the cropping pattern CP4 and the lowest gross margin (Tk. 69,271) and MBCR (1.24) was found with the pattern CP5. Based on the above results it can be suggested that, Aman rice-Lentil-Sesame pattern i.e. CP4 may be a best choice for the farmers of Magura region for the maximum utilization of their land and gaining more profit compared to the other studied cropping patterns.</div>

<div>Yield and Profitability Analysis of Pulse and Oil Seed Based Cropping Patterns against Aman- Boro- Fallow Cropping Systems in Magura</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Continuous adoption of Pearl millet-Wheat cropping system led to reduction in productivity which put a serious threat to its sustainability in semi-arid eastern plain zone of Rajasthan, India. Crop diversification with wider choice with a variety of crops is being promoted as an alternative to profit maximization with enhanced soil fertility status. Therefore, a long term experiment was initiated to evaluate the production potential, sustainability, resource-use efficiency and economics of nine Pearl millet based cropping systems. Result revealed that system productivity in terms of pearl millet equivalent yield (PMEY) was highest (30488 kg ha-1) with groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion crop rotation. Moreover, groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion recorded the highest SYI and land use efficiency (0.65 and 73.97%) followed by pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley sequence (0.63 and 65.75%). The groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion also generated highest number of man days/ha/year (405). The highest values of organic carbon were found under green gram-mustard-pearl millet-lentil and cluster bean-pea-pearl millet-lentil. The maximum value of available P was recorded with cluster bean-mustard-green gram-garden cress followed by the groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion sequence. Available K decreased significantly from their initial values in all the cropping systems except groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion crop rotation. Among the various systems, groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion realized the highest net returns ( 213000 ha-1), followed by pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley ( 163254 ha-1). Overall, it can be concluded that under the semi-arid agro climatic conditions of Rajasthan, groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion, followed by pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley, were more productive, sustainable, resource use efficient and remunerative than other cropping systems.</div>

Crop diversification of predominant Pearl millet based cropping system for higher productivity, resource-use efficiency and profitability in Semi-Arid Rajasthan