Division of Crop Production

• Pulse-inclusive maize-based rotation increased active and passive carbon pools in soil. Pigeonpea–wheat and maize–wheat–mungbean rotations contain the maximum available nutrients and soil carbon pools over conventional maize–wheat; the effect was most prominent on soil carbon and phosphorus bioavailability.
• Pulse-inclusive rotation improves soil aggregation — conspicuously in pigeonpea–wheat and maize–wheat–mungbean — along with mean weight diameter, bulk density and water holding capacity.
• All pulse-inclusive rotations favoured carbon sequestration, soil microbial biomass carbon and soil enzymatic activity, with the most prominent change in alkaline phosphatase and dehydrogenase activity.
• Inclusion of summer mungbean in the maize–wheat system improves both base crop and system productivity; pulses are equally responsive under integrated and recommended fertiliser doses.

• Rice-inclusive pulse-based rotations increased active and passive carbon pools; rice–wheat–mungbean had the highest positive impact on soil N, P, K, S and carbon availability.
• Pulse-inclusive rotation improved soil aggregation, most visibly in rice–wheat–mungbean under integrated nutrient management.
• Pulse-inclusive rotation positively impacted carbon sequestration in the macro-fractions.
• Significant impact on soil microbial biomass carbon and enzymatic activity, most prominent in rice–wheat–mungbean followed by rice–chickpea.
• Inclusion of summer mungbean improves base crop (rice) and system productivity; in rice-based systems pulses become more responsive under integrated nutrient management.

• CA in pulse-based systems: conventionally tilled puddled transplanted rice with zero tillage in the post-rainy season, and rice–chickpea / wheat–mungbean, increased rice yield by 17% and wheat by 13% over conventionally tilled rice–wheat. Pulse-intensive systems had a superior sustainable yield index — rice 8.1%, wheat 7.7% and chickpea 11% higher than rice–wheat.
• Summer mungbean under CA in the rice–wheat system: grain yield increased 24.4% under zero tillage over conventional tillage. Virat gave the highest grain yield (1478 kg/ha). Residue retention improved yield 9.3% over removal. System productivity as mungbean equivalent yield was higher under zero tillage (4232 kg/ha), residue retention (4392 kg/ha) and Virat (4338 kg/ha).
• CA in the rice–chickpea system: zero-tilled rice with zero-tilled chickpea plus residue gave higher crop and system yield than conventional tillage, with an additional benefit of ₹35,000–40,000 over conventional tillage.
• Soil outcomes: significantly higher soil aggregation (24%) under zero-tilled rice; rice–chickpea–mungbean and zero-tilled rice recorded 22% higher carbon sequestration; soil microbial biomass carbon increased by about 70% in zero-tilled and pulse-inclusive systems.

• Chickpea: sprinkler irrigation at the branch and pod development stages gave higher grain yield (16.1%), biomass (9%), harvest index (5.7%), net return (22.4%), BCR (22.8%) and productivity per day (16.4%) than sprinkler irrigation in the branching phase alone.
• Pigeonpea (long duration): peak branching (90–100 days) and pod development (200–210 days) identified as the critical stages for life-saving irrigation; drip irrigation at IW:CPE 0.4 found suitable.
• Lentil: sprinkler at branching gave higher grain yield (12%), biomass (9.7%), harvest index (5.7%), net return (11.2%) and productivity per day (12%) over flood irrigation, with 14.3% higher water use efficiency and 12.5% higher water productivity.
• Urdbean and mungbean: frequent shallow irrigation with micro-sprinklers gave yields on par with flood irrigation while using 21.5% less water, with 83.5% higher water use efficiency, 83% higher water productivity, 53.5% higher net return and 19.6% higher BCR.
• Fieldpea: sprinkler irrigation at branching and pod development recorded 1.53 times higher water productivity, 1.5 q/ha higher crop productivity and increased biomass, pods per plant and grain weight per plant.
• Hydrogel: no scaling in chickpea productivity or profit followed hydrogel application, even at the higher dose of 5 kg/ha.
• Bio-regulators: salicylic acid at 100 ppm showed an advantage in chickpea grain yield (22.4%), water use efficiency (20.1%), water productivity (15.3%) and net return (31.2%) over water spray; 2% urea or 0.5% NPK were equally effective.

Rice + urdbean / mungbean / lathyrus / lentil relay cropping

• Broadcasting pulse seed 7–10 days before rice harvest, using a 25% higher seed rate.
• Seed priming by soaking for 4–6 hours in water and micro-nutrient solutions.
• Seed treatment with fungicide, Rhizobium, PSB and PGPRs.
• Maintaining 20–30 cm rice stubble on the ground to conserve soil moisture.
• Foliar spray with 2% urea or DAP, first at 50% flowering and again ten days later.
• Rice ratoon and weed control with quizalofop-ethyl at 50–100 g a.i./ha.
• Following IPM modules for disease and pest management.
• Use of farm ponds for water harvesting and life-saving irrigation with sprinklers.
• Rice cultivation through transplanting under unpuddled conditions and direct seeded rice.

Rice – lentil / chickpea / pea sequential cropping

• Sowing of pulses under zero tillage just after the harvest of rice.
• Use of medium or short duration, high yielding, multiple disease resistant pulse varieties.
• Remaining practices as under relay cropping.

• Significantly higher wheat yield (5.73 t/ha) can be realized through organic practice alone. Potential productivity is also achieved with foliar supply of organic forms of zinc (Biozinc), phosphorus (Biophos) and vermiwash. The higher economic gain in gross returns and B:C ratio (1.83) was recorded under organic cultivation compared with conventional in the green manure–wheat–mungbean system.
• In pulse-based cropping and intercropping systems, higher system productivity was recorded under organic farming with urdbean+bajra – chickpea+mustard, followed by recommended farming practices. The maximum chickpea yield (1.68 t/ha) came from sole chickpea, significantly higher than chickpea+mustard and chickpea+barley.
• System productivity followed the order organic farming (5.01 t/ha) > recommended > natural farming > control.

Chemical weed management

• Kharif pulses (mungbean, urdbean, pigeonpea) — pendimethalin 1.0 kg a.i./ha pre-emergence and imazethapyr 100 g a.i./ha post-emergence at 20–25 DAS.
• Rabi pulses (chickpea, lentil, pea) — pendimethalin 1.0 kg a.i./ha pre-emergence and quizalofop-ethyl 100 g a.i./ha post-emergence at 20–25 DAS.
• Spring / summer system (mungbean, urdbean) — imazethapyr 80 g a.i./ha post-emergence at 20–25 DAS, after the first irrigation.
• New post-emergence herbicides — clodinafop-propargyl + sodium aciflurofen 187.5 ml a.i./ha at 15–20 DAS in mungbean, and topramezone 20.6 ml a.i./ha at 14–21 DAS in chickpea.

Rice–chickpea system

• Pendimethalin 1.0 kg a.i./ha pre-emergence and bispyribac-sodium 20 g a.i./ha at 20 DAS in rice.
• Oxyfluorfen 150 g a.i./ha pre-emergence and propaquizafop 100 g a.i./ha post-emergence at 25 DAS in chickpea.

Ratoon management in rice fallow

• Quizalofop-ethyl 100 g a.i./ha post-emergence at 20–25 DAS in pulses in rice–pulse based cropping systems.
• Glyphosate 1.0 kg a.i./ha as a pre-plant application in pulses for rice-fallow conditions.

• Leaf chlorophyll content, nitrate reductase activity, plant biomass and other growth parameters were influenced positively by 20–30% under poultry manure incorporation (1.0 t/ha) compared with control (−P) plots.
• System productivity is higher by 10% (pigeonpea–wheat) and 9% (pearl millet–chickpea) with 50% crop residue plus PSB application over control.
• Cumulative phosphorus mineralization is maximum with poultry manure at 1.0 t/ha — 34% over control — and among residues, pearl millet releases the most phosphorus.
• Overall soluble phosphorus fractions increased in poultry-manure plots by almost 30–35% over control and significantly over RDF. Adsorption study showed manure addition reduced the adsorption maxima, through saturation of adsorption sites and organic carbon covering oxides and carbonates.

• Foliar spray of 0.5% ZnSO₄ at the pre-flowering and pod formation stages gave a seed zinc content of 65–75 ppm, 20–25% higher than control.
• JG 16, GNG 2171, IPC 10 62 and GNG 469, Vijay and GNG 2171 are soil- and foliar-applied zinc responsive genotypes respectively, while Vijay, GNG 469 and JAKI 9218 utilise soil and foliar zinc efficiently.

• Pulses are consumed after dehusking and splitting, as dal. The by-product obtained during milling is rich in bioactive compounds — protein, fibre, phenols, anticarcinogenic compounds and antioxidants — and can be used to make many edible food products.
• The husk component’s therapeutic value lies mainly in antioxidant activity, polyphenolic compounds and fibre.
• The powder component (pulse protein) can be used for pulse-based recipes including bakery products.