Enhancing productivity of rainfed farms by adopting bael + cowpea horti-agri system strengthened with water conservation practices

Abstract

Rainfed agriculture constitutes the
source of food and livelihood security
of millions of people worldwide.
However, production of rainfed areas
is constrained by the extreme
variability in rainfall, poor nutrient
status of soils, land degradation through erosion etc. Under such
situations, horti-agri and other
agroforestry land use systems are the
best options to protect the land from
various types of degradation,
diversifying the farming system and
increasing the soil carbon build up
and moisture storage. These benefits
of agroforestry can be improved by
incorporating in-situ moisture
conservation practices and legume
crops intercropped with fruit trees
may provide important source of cash
and income. In a field experiment
carried out at Research Farm, Water
Technology Centre, Indian
Agricultural Research Institute, New
Delhi during kharif of 2015 and
2016 with cowpea grown in bael tree
orchard provided with contour trench
on its upper side of bael tree rows for
water conservation, inclusion of
cowpea enhanced the bael fruit yield
and also the total yield (bael +
cowpea) expressed as cowpea greenpod
equivalent yield, when the plots
were provided with contour trench
treatment for water conservation.
The study demonstrated that bael tree
or any other hardy horticulture
intercropped with cowpea and the
system supported with contour
trench water conservation practice in
the upstream of tree can immensely
increase farm productivity and
income under rainfed conditions of
arid and semi-arid climate.