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

Field experiments were conducted at farmer’s fields on the application of green manure Dhaincha (Sesbania rostrata) as preceding crop to rice to improve yields with green manuring and also increase the status of soil physical and chemical properties, soil organic carbon and pH towards neutral. The performance of an entire system is evaluated by front-line demonstration under the control of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nizamabad (Rudrur) under field conditions at s farmer’s field. Sesbania seeds were sown @ 45-50 kg/ha. 5-6 weeks old green manuring crops were chopped into pieces and incorporated in the fields with a tractor drawn rotovator. With the incorporation of green manure crops, the average rice yield was increased by 8.36%. The demonstration was done on around 8 hectares covering 20 rice-cultivating farmers. During 2019-21 years with conventional practice, three years average no. of panicles per meter square was only 173 whereas it was 182 in the demonstration plot, similarly, the average grain yield was 6467 kg/ha and 7008 kg/ha in farmer’s practice and demonstration plots respectively.
The average net return was only Rs.67,092 per hectare from farmer’s practice, whereas it with the incorporation of green manure crop before rice was Rs.82,310 in demonstration plots respectively. Similarly, the average cost to-benefit ratio was 2.24 in the conventional method and later it was noticed 2.69 in the demo plot. Hence, the farmers growing rice in the wetland ecosystem are advised to take up green manure followed by transplanted rice as a cropping pattern for sustainable yield and economic returns.