Interaction of Cropping Pattern and Fertility Treatments on Yield and Sustainability of Mixed Cropping System under Moisture Regime

Abstract

The farmers in most regions of Pakistan are heavily reliant on traditional farming approaches all year round and tend to cultivate exhaustive crops like wheat, cotton, maize, and sugarcane in most areas of the country. Consistently adopting this system leads to depleting the soil fertility status, which they overcome by instigating an uneconomical way of using excessive chemical fertilizers to maximize crop yields. These fertilizers are truly acidic and adversely affect soil health. Adopting sustainable farming approaches by the incorporation of legumes into the farming system with an integrated nutrient supply restores soil fertility and maintains the sustainability of the agro-ecosystem. A field experiment was performed to determine the significance of the integrated source of nutrient management on the growth and yield of sole and mixed cultures of sorghum and mungbean crops in areas with moisture regimes. The fertility treatments applied to the sole and intercrops of sorghum and mung-bean in a given sequence; i) Control, ii) Compost @ 10 t/ha, iii) FYM @ 20 t/ha, iv) NP @ 40 kg N + 30 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1, v) ½ of recommended Compost @ 5 t/ha + ½ of recommended NP @ 20 kg N & 15 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1, vi) ½ of recommended FYM @ 10 t/ha + ½ of recommended NP @ 20 kg N & 15 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1. The sole crop of mungbean gave a maximum grain yield of 2229.1 kg/ha over an intercrop of 1779.7 kg/ha. Similarly, the highest grain yield of 2779.8 kg/ha of sorghum was obtained in sole culture over its intercrop of 2150.9 kg/ha. The interaction effect of cropping pattern and fertility treatments showed that sorghum and mungbean gave significant results for growth and yield parameters where a combined dose of organic & mineral fertilizers were provided in comparison to the plots where these fertilizers were applied in split doses.