Impact of Mineral and Organic Fertilizer Management on the Performance of Oat-Chickpea Cropping Systems

In India, particularly in Manipur, the cultivation of fodder crops is given the least attention as most of the agricultural land is devoted to food crops to meet the food demand of our enormous population. As a result, livestock productivity of the state is suffering. In addition, cultivation of single crops repeatedly over years using inorganic sources of nutrients as inputs for the growth and development of the crops in the same field leads to low production at the cost of soil quality deterioration and environmental issues. Therefore, an experiment was carried out to evaluate the productivity of the oat–chickpea intercropping system to assess the effect of mineral and organic fertilizer management using factorial randomized block design with three replications comprising four levels of the cropping system (CS1-sole oat, CS2-sole chickpea, CS3-intercropping of oat with chickpea in a 3:2 row ratio and CS4-intercropping of oat with chickpea in a 3:3 row ratio) in the main plot and three levels of nutrient management (F1—Full RDF(recommended dose of fertilizer)through inorganic source, F2—50% N of RDF + 50% N through FYM(farm yard manure)and F3—50% N of RDF + 50%N through vermicompost) in the sub plot to study their productivity and economic feasibility. Three years of pooled results revealed that the maximum green fodder yield (50.88 t/ha), dry matter yield (11.84 t/ha) and plant height (120.69 cm) of oat was recorded in CS1, which is among the intercropping systems with the highest green fodder yield (40.11 t/ha) and has a plant height of 115.06 cm; this was recorded in CS3 and the highest dry matter yield (8.44 t/ha) was recorded in CS4. Application of F3 to oats gave the highest green fodder yield, dry matter yield and maximum plant height in all three years of the growing period. The maximum seed yield (1.86 t/ha), harvest index (46.05%), stover yield (2.15 t/ha/ha) and plant height (53.55 cm) of chickpea was obtained in CS2, but among the intercropping system, CS4 was statistically significant at a 5% probability level and was superior in seed yield and stover yield, as compared to the CS3cropping system. The application of F2 showed a higher seed yield and stover yield of chickpea. The green forage equivalent yield (85.37 t/ha), land equivalent ratio (LER) (1.63), gross return ($1902/ha), net returns ($1436/ha) and benefit cost ratio (4.19) were recorded to be the highest in the CS4 cropping system of oat and chickpea. This study concludes that CS4, in combination with the application of F3, can be recommended as it provides a higher green forage equivalent yield, LER and other economic benefits, as compared to other cropping systems and nutrient management practices.