Productivity and Economics of Ber Based Agri-Horticultural Systems under Semi-Arid Condition of Akola in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Alternate land use system is applicable in areas where subsistence farming is practiced in unstable ecosystems, and it poses more potentiality and flexibility in land use than the traditional crop production systems. Alternate land use systems are effective means of stabilizing both productivity of dryland crops and incomes of dryland farmers, besides generating more counter potential. Ber is highly resistant to drought conditions due to well-developed long tap root system than other crops. There is area to grow field crops in between the interspaces during the early growth stages of Ber in order to increase the land use efficiency. The experiment with objectives for studying the productivity and the economics of Ber based Agro-Horticulture system under dryland condition was conducted at the research farm of the AICRP for Dryland Agriculture, Dr. PDKV, Akola. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Block Design with four treatments and five replications. The six years pooled data resulted that the treatment cotton + soybean (1:1) recorded significantly highest Ber equivalent yield (970 kg ha-1), gross monetary returns (Rs. 69643), net monetary returns (Rs.22106) and rainwater use efficiency (1.17 kg ha-1 mm-1) as compare to rest of the treatments.