A field experiment was conducted during 2019–20 with an objective to study the effect of diversification of rice- wheat cropping system with different fodder, legume and high value crops for enhanced productivity and employment generation under irrigated ecosystem. The rice equivalent yield was maximum with sudan fodder (4412 kg/ha), capsicum (8371 kg/ha) and lady’s finger (6519 kg/ ha) for rainy (kharif), winter (rabi) and summer season, respectively. However, high value rice-potato-lady’s finger recorded significantly higher system productivity and was comparable to high value rice-capsicum-vegetable cowpea sequence. Cropping sequences containing more than one crop gave better land use efficiency and more employment generation opportunities by engaging more farm labours. Hence, both the sequences, S9 and S10 recorded higher land use efficiency and labour engagement over other crop sequences thus leading to better employment generation.

Conventionally established rice leads to major challenges in crop production like soil health degradation, water table declination and labour scarcity which ultimately increases the cost of production. To address these issues of transplanted rice, different conservation agriculture (CA) based crop establishment practices in combination with suitable weed management options were incorporated to sustain rice productivity. The field trial was conducted for two years during kharif season of 2018 and 2019 at Research Farm, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (India). The experiment was laid out in split plot design having four planting techniques in main plots viz., farmer’s practice (Conventional Transplanting), zero-till direct seeded rice (ZT-DSR), reduced-till direct seeded rice (RT-DSR) (Rotavator single pass) and conventional-till direct seeded rice (CT-DSR) and five weed management practices viz., pendimethalin 1 kg ha-1 pre-emergence (PE) followed by (fb) chlorimuron + metsulfuron (4g + 4g ha-1) at 20 days after sowing (DAS), pendimethalin 1 kg ha-1 PE fb pyrazosulfuron (30 g ha-1) at 20 DAS, bispyribac-sodium + chlorimuron + metsulfuron (25g + 4g  + 4g ha-1) at 20 DAS, hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS and Weedy check in sub-plots and replicated thrice. The results showed that Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) content in grain and straw were not significantly influenced by planting techniques and weed management practices. However, among various crop establishment methods CT-DSR recorded significantly higher N, P and K uptake by both grain and straw over rest of the treatments except ZT-DSR during both the years.  Similarly, two hands weeding (at 20 DAS and 40 DAS) recorded the highest N, P and K uptake by the crop. With respect to herbicidal treatments, higher N, P and K uptake by crop was found with the application of pendimethalin 1 kg ha-1 (pre-em) fb  chlorimuron + metsulfuron (4g + 4g ha-1) at 20 DAS compared to others during both the years of experimentation. Based on the results, it is concluded that application of pendimethalin 1 kg ha-1 PE fb chlorimuron + metsulfuron (4g + 4g ha-1) at 20 DAS to CT-DSR was registered maximum N, P and K uptake by both grain and straw of rice.

A field experiment was conducted with 10 crop sequences as treatments to find out nutrient dynamics and nutrient uptake pattern. This study was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Among the different cropping sequence taken under study, sudan fodder- berseem- cowpea fodder recorded highest nitrogen (443.6 kg/ha), phosphorus (146.8 kg/ha) and potassium (306.3 kg/ha) uptake followed by cowpea fodder- berseem- maize fodder with 411, 105.9 and 274 kg/ha nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, respectively. Both these crop sequences showed negative nitrogen balance in soil. Meanwhile potassium balance was negative for most of the sequences. However, high value rice- capsicum - vegetable cowpea registered lowest nitrogen (134.5 kg/ha) and potassium uptake (129.20 kg/ha) leading to a positive nitrogen and potassium balance. Bangladesh J. Bot. 51(3): 607-613, 2022 (September)

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