Crop Diversification through Pulses and Oilseeds as an alternative to Summerfallowing- A success Story from Murshidabad District

      Summer fallow is a cultivated plot of land where the agricultural activities are put on halt for a regular growing season(Pre-Kharif). Resting the ground in this manner allows one crop to be grown using the moisture and nutrients of more than one nutrient cycle. However, it also creates lost production opportunity. Recent studies have revealed that summerfallowing can result in serious environmental consequences. This is due to the requirement of additional fuels at the time tillage operation when the land remains fallow. Also, organic matter can be depleted with higher frequency of fallowing.

     There are two classic case from Murshidabad DPMU which demonstrates that diversifying cropping system with Green Gram and Sesame brings an additional income to the farmers which is lost if the soil remain fallow during Pre Kharif. This comes as a bonus to the enhancement of soil moisture conservation, improving soil nitrogen availability and increasing crop production.

Case Study 1: Green Gram(Vigna radiata) Cultivation in Pasai I Tube Well Water User Association under Raghunathganj I Block:
   Green Gram is mostly sown as rainfed kharif crop. In the Rabi and Pre-Kharif season, the crop requires 2-4 irrigation for good yield. A pre-sowing irrigation is generally found to be beneficial. 

Five nos. of Farmers from the WUA cultivated Green Gram during Pre-Kharif 2017 covering 5 bigha plot of land details of which is as follows:

Date of Sowing:21st Feb 2017

Date of Harvesting: 18th May 2017

Per Bigha Return against Input Costs (Average):

*Cost of Cultivation(INR)	Yield/bigha(in Kg)	Selling Rate/kg (INR)	Gross profit(INR)	Net profit(INR)
6335.00	105	85.00	8925.00	2590.00

Break up of Per Bigha Cost of Cultivation (Average):

Input	Quantity	Rate(INR)	Amount(INR)
Seed	1 kg	70.00	70.00
Land Preparation		400	400.00
Fertilizers
Urea	20 kg	8.00	160.00
10:26:26	20	24.00	480.00
Cow dung	600	2.00	1200.00
Irrigation	2 times	400.00	800.00
Labour	12 Men Days	250/day/Man day	3000.00
Pest Control		225	225.00
Total			6335.00

        

Case Study 2. Sesame(Sesamum indicum) cultivation in Dakshinpara Tube Well Water User Association under Raghunathganj I Block of the district.
 Like legume grains, sesame also is efficient in water use and hence require less water for their growth. Irrigation at 50% available moisture level is found to give a good yield. Flowering and fruiting stages are observed to be most responsive to irrigation.

Five nos. of Farmers from the WUA cultivated sesame during Pre-Kharif 2017 covering 5 bigha plot of land details of which is as follows:
Date of Sowing: 26th March 2017
Date of Harvesting: 20th May 2017

Per Bigha Return Against Input Costs(Average):

*Cost of Cultivation(INR)	Yield/bigha(in Kg)	Selling Rate/kg (INR)	Gross profit(INR)	Net profit(INR)
5640.00	135	57.00	7695.00	2055.00

Break up of Per Bigha Cost of Cultivation (Average):

Input	Quantity	Rate(INR)	Amount(INR)
Seed	1 kg	100	100.00
Land Preparation		400	400.00
Fertilizers
Urea	20 kg	8	160.00
10:26:26	20	24	480.00
Cow dung	500	2	1000.00
Irrigation	1 time	500	500.00
Labour	12 Men Days	250/day/Man day	3000.00
Total			5640.00

The above 2 case studies demonstrate that besides improving the soil health, the farmer are also earning additional income during the lean period of the year when there used to be no agricultural activities earlier. This also increases the actual crop cultivated area thus adding to the overall cropping intensity of the command area.