Impact of Green manuring preceding to rice crop on rice yield and cost of cultivation in Nizamabad District of Telangana state

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) being one of the principal food crops, is the staple food of over half of the world’s population. It is the basic food crop and being a tropical plant, it flourishes comfortably in hot and humid climates [20]. India has the largest area under rice cultivation,  under this; rice is the second largest producer and consumer of rice in the world [21]. Rice is mainly grown in rain-fed areas that receive heavy annual rainfall. That is why it is fundamentally a kharif crop in India, however, is also grown through irrigation in those areas that receives comparatively less rainfall. Rice is one of the major cereal crops of East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh occupying an area of 8,968 ha with an average production of 13,631 MT and average productivity is 1520 kg/ha during 2013-14 which is far below the productivity of rice growing states of India and national average productivity [11].

Poor rice productivity in the district may be due to the use of age-old production practices. Moreover, farmers of the district are unaware of the improved packages and practices released by different research institutions and are not willing to use chemical fertilizer even if it is made available to them [19].

After the introduction of high-yielding varieties, it becomes essential to provide nutrients to enhance the productivity of rice. Front-line demonstrations were conducted to demonstrate the production potential of released proven technologies in farmer’s fields under real farming situations and the available technologies should reach the farmers[15]. Indeed knowledge dissemination through the FLD programme has increased the level of knowledge among participant farmers as compared to non-participant farmers to a significant level [22] and [18]. This shows a positive impact of front-line demonstration on yield and knowledge of the farmers [23].

In India, rice is grown in almost half the states, with West Bengal leading the way in terms of production with 14.71 million tonnes, followed by Uttar Pradesh (12.22 million tonnes) and Andhra Pradesh (11.57 million tonnes). In Tamil Nadu rice is only the staple cereal crop, and rice growers have used a large amount of chemical fertilizer and herbicide to increase rice field’s productivity. To increase agricultural production, in conventional agriculture chemical N fertilizers are often overused to such an extent that the environment is adversely affected. Concentrations of several reactive oxidized and reduced forms of N such as N₂O, NO₃, and NH₃ are reported to exhibit an increase in their concentrations in the environment [7] [13].

Green manuring with N-fixing legume crops can provide a substantial quantity of rice N requirement with organic matter to wetland rice soils. Additionally, this technology is safe for human health and environmentally friendly. The soil management practices to increase fertility and productivity should include an increase in biomass along with reducing its decomposition [3].

In the last few years, there have been several meetings and publications dealing with the broad perspectives of sustainable agriculture [6]. The basic thrust of sustainable agriculture is to improve the quality of life in the context of an environmentally sound approach so that the resource base is maintained or enhanced for future generations. There are frequently additional focuses on sustainability as [8]; defines that the “Sustainable agriculture should involve successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of the environment and conserving natural resources”. Similarly, it has been suggested by Agriculture Canada, [1] that the “Sustainable agriculture system are those that are economically viable to meet society’s needs for safe and nutritious food, while conserving the quality of the environment for future generations”.

Since the Green Revolution of the 1960’s, substantial increases in cereal production have allowed an ongoing rise in world population, which now exceeds 6.5 billion. The gain in agricultural productivity has been accomplished with the introduction of modern crop production practices that rely on high- yielding varieties and heavy inputs of fertilizers and pesticides. This approach is solely directed towards maximizing grain yield, without regard to long- term impacts on the soil resource that is crucial for sustainable cereal production. Consequently, a dramatic escalation has occurred in global consumption of synthetic N, from 11.6 Tg in 1961 to 104 Tg in 2006 [9]. In many parts of the world, N fertilizer recommendations continue to follow a prescriptive approach using generic models of economic response, often without regard to site-specific variation in crop N requirement [14]. Given the fundamental coupling of microbial C and N cycling, the dominant occurrence of both elements in soil organic forms, and the close correlation between soil C and N mineralization [4], the loss of soil organic carbon has serious implications for the storage of soil N. There is good reason for concern about sustaining world food production and maintaining sustainability in soil productivity the present experiment was conducted. Out of 2,68,650 ha of net cropped area of Nizamabad district of Telangana state maximum area i.e. 1,61,190 ha (2019-21) is under traditional rice, mostly cultivated as irrigated crop during Kharif season. The productivity of rice in the district is high due adoption of high-yielding varieties and other improved technologies and high fertilizers consumptions. Intending to improve rice production and productivity, KVK of Nizamabad district, conducted front line demonstration (FLD) Programme entitled “Demonstrationt of Green manuring preceding to rice crop” in twelve villages (viz. Rudrur, Hunsa, Suddulam, Lingampalli, Kollur, Hungarga farm, Raikur, Gannaram, Baswapur, Eklaspur, Minarpalli, Eklaspur villages) of three mandals in three consecutive years i.e. 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 in the farm land of farmers. Impact analysis of Front Line Demonstrations (FLD‘s) of rice on yield, economic returns, and adoption of demonstrated technology has been carried