Conservation agriculture responses to productivity and profitability of mungbean under maize based cropping system in far western region of Nepal

Abstract

The crop productivity of far western mid hills and river basin region is lower than that of the
other regions of Nepal. The existing cultivation practices of this research area are conventional tillage with
animal driven ploughing and crop residues removal practices. Low crop productivity results from poor crop
management, low soil fertility and climatic variation. Conservation agriculture has been found as an effective
crop management practice to rejuvenate soil fertility and increase crop yield. This research was conducted at
the research field of Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bhagetada, Dipayal, Doti, Nepal during 2015-
2016 with the objective of identifying suitable cereal based crop management practice for high crop
productivity and profitability. It was carried out in split-split plot design with four replications at the plot size
of 18 m
2
area. The results revealed that the interaction of maize-lentil-mungbean cropping system,
conservation agriculture and Kalyan variety of mungbean produced the grain yield of 15.62% (1.11 t ha-1
)
which were higher than that of the conventional agriculture practice. The interaction of the same cropping
system, conservation agriculture and Kalyan variety produced net benefit of 106.69% (US $ 386.71 ha-1
) and
benefit to cost (B: C) ratio 46.04% (2.03) which were higher than that of conventional practice. Thus the
maize-lentil-mungbean cropping system, conservation agriculture and Kalyan variety of mungbean could be
appropriate for the farmers of far western river basin agro-environment of Nepal.