SEASON AND SOWING

  • Pre monsoon sowing for cotton and pulses.
  • Monsoon sowing for sorghum and late monsoon sowing of sunflower, pearl millet are found to be optimum for getting higher seed yield.
  • Contingent cropping with gingelly, coriander and senna are best for late monsoon condition
  • Optimum crop density with the spacing of 45 x 15 cm for sustainable yield in sorghum and cotton
  • Sorghum seed hardening with 2 % KH2PO4 to inducing drought tolerance.

WEED MANAGEMENT

  • Maintenance of weed free situation up to 30-60 days in cotton and 21-35 days in millets.
  • Pre emergence application of herbicides for rainfed crops to control weeds.
  • Dust mulching or hoeing between 30th and 45th day after sowing for controlling the weed growth in dryland crops.

SYSTEMS

  • Economically viable intercropping system of Cotton + Radish (vegetable) under crop diversification.
  • Intercropping of pulses / cluster bean in cotton at 2 : 1 ratio and intercropping of lab lab / cowpea in sorghum at 2 : 1 for economical returns
  • Economically feasible and sustainable integrated farming system for dryland vertisol ecosystem with milch cows (2 nos) / goat (3+1) + cow (1) along with crop cultivation

NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

  • Basal application of 40:20:0 NPK kg /ha for cotton and millets.
  • Application of 50% recommended N as inorganic and 50% recommended N as organic (FYM/Crop residue/green leaf manure) for cotton and millets.
  • Application of recommended P (20 kg/ ha) as enriched FYM to improve phosphorus use efficiency.
  • Micronutrient basal application of ZnSO4 at 25 kg/ ha along with recommended NPK for cotton and millets.
  • Foliar application of 0.5% MgSO4+ 0.1 % ZnSO4 and 1% Urea on 50th and 80th day after sowing to overcome the magnesium deficiency in cotton.

Crop Management