Soil fertility & straw mulching in rainfed upland farming

The current approach of increasing production is to increase the cropping intensity as well as productivity while increasing profitability through precision farming by conserving natural resources. Despite scarcity of land, adequate supply of water or judicious use of fertilizer, there is a distinct possibility of growing three crops in a year in Gangetic alluvial plains in a view of the receipt of 1400-1500 mm annual precipitation. Taking into account production, soil health and sustainability, rapeseed- greengram- rice system of cropping could successfully be practiced under rainfed condition with limited supply of nutrients along with conservation of residual soil moisture for raising rabi and pre-kharif crops. Conjunctive use of organic manures and chemical fertilizers proved to the better and residual effects of fertility and straw mulching had a positive effect towards improvement of physical, chemical and biological properties of soil, thereby increasing the yield of succeeding rice crop.