Abstract

The importance of rotation in crop production is well recognised. But this practice is not widely adopted in the Madras State probably due to the small size of the average holding of the cultivator. Groundnut being an important money crop of the drylands, is being grown year after year in the same land without any rotation. Judging from the present methods of harvest of the crop whereby the vines and some portion of the roots are removed from the soil, the practice of growing groundnut continuously in the same land is likely to have adverse effects though not immediately atleast in the course of some years. Where rotation is practised, it has been the experience of cultivators that crops following groundnut generally yield well. The spreading type of groundnut which is grown in rotation with Varagu (Paspalum scrobiculatum) by a few cultivators in South Arcot district is said to yield better than the same type of groundnut grown year after year without rotation. Rotations vary in the different producing areas depending upon a number of factors, such as, nature of soil, local conditions and demand, solvency of the cultivator, etc. In this State groundnut is generally rotated with cereals like Cumbu (Pennisetum typhoides), Cholam (Sorghum vulgare), Varagu and Tenai (Setaria italica) in dry lands. In favourable situations groundnut is followed in the same year by maize, Varagu, Cholam, cotton, gingelly and horsegram.

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