Abstract

                                Field experiments were conducted at Coconut Research Station, Aliyarnagarduring 2016 – 2019 to assess the performance of rice-based croppingsequences for water-scarce conditions of the Parambikulam Aliyar ProjectCommand area of Tamil Nadu. Five cropping sequences viz., rice–sesame(T1), rice–groundnut (T2), rice– sunflower (T3), rice–castor (T4) and rice–blackgram (T5) were experimented adopting Randomized Block Design with eachsequence replicated four times. Results revealed that compared to the othernon-legume sequences experimented, the contents of KMnO4-N and organiccarbon in the post harvest soil, productivity of rice and economic efficiencywere higher in rice–black gram followed by rice–groundnut sequence. Rice–castor sequence recorded the highest land utilization efficiency of 76.7 %and was the lowest in rice–black gram sequence (53.4 %). Rice equivalentyield was the highest on sequential cropping with sunflower (5755 kg ha-1)followed by groundnut (5028 kg ha-1). Production efficiency was the highest inrice– groundnut (47.5 kg ha-1 day-1) followed by rice–castor (42.5 kg ha-1 day-1) systems. Net returns and benefit-cost ratio were higher in rice–sunflowerand rice–black gram sequences followed by rice–groundnut and was thelowest in rice–sesame sequence. In terms of soil fertility, system productivityand economic returns, rice–sunflower, rice–black gram and rice–groundnutsystems are highly remunerative for water-scarce conditions of ParambikulamAliyar Command Area of Tamil Nadu.

Key words : Rice; Cropping Sequence; Rice Equivalent Yield; Net Returns; Production Efficiency; Economic Efficiency