Management Practices for Utera Pulses in Rice-fallow System under Coastal Saline Zone of West Bengal

Abstract

Due to salt accumulation in the upper layers of soil during the dry season, the cultivation of a second crop in rabi season in coastal saline zone (CSZ) of West Bengal is limited to only a few areas with a resultant low cropping intensity. But inclusion of pulses, as utera crop, is a potential option in rice-fallow areas with a dual advantage of crop diversification for sustainable production and area expansion of pulses to meet human nutrition. But the effective utera management practices in CSZ has not been standardized so far. To address this issue, a field experiment was conducted in rabi seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the farmers’ fields of Jatirampur, Gosaba, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal to standardize the management practices for utera crops such as lathyrus (cv. Bio-L 212) and lentil (cv. Maitree) in rice-fallow system. The experiments were set up in randomized block design with five treatments, each replicated four times. Five management practices were tested on utera crops: sowing of dry seed 2 weeks before harvest of rice + no fertilizer, water soaked seed sown 1 week before harvest of rice + no fertilizer, water soaked seed 1 week before harvest of rice + foliar application of 2% DAP (di-ammonium phosphate), water soaked seed 1 week before harvest of rice + Rhizobium inoculation and sowing of seed by reduced tillage. In both the years of experiment, although different utera management practices has beneficial impact on yield and yield attributes of pulse crops, but the maximum seed yield was obtained when pulse crops received 2% DAP as foliar spray. Rest other utera management treatments were statistically at par except dry seed sowing just two weeks before harvesting of kharif rice. Thus, foliar applications of 2% DAP may be advocated for better yield and growth of utera lentil and lathyrus in rice-fallow areas under coastal saline zone of West Bengal.