Productivity and economic feasibility of vegetable-based cropping system under organic and natural farming conditions in Indo-Gangetic plains of India

Abstract

Organic and natural farming are considered as an alternative to modern agriculture for sustaining soil and environmental health, and better quality of agricultural produce free from pesticide residues. The consumer concern for the same is more for vegetables and fruits as they generally are consumed raw and have higher frequency of purchase.  Field experiments were conducted in northwest India during 2018 and 2019 to evaluate the performance of pea-okra- radish cropping system under organic and natural farming practices with paddy straw mulch and no-mulch conditions. The treatments consisted of farmyard manure (FYM) to supply recommended nitrogen to the crops, natural farming practices-250 kg FYM/ha + on-farm preparations (NF), FYM + NF and FYM + vermicompost (VC). The FYM, FYM + NF and FYM + VC were at par with each other but were significantly superior to NF and unfertilized control in respect of economic yields of all the crops. The economic yields of pea, okra, and radish were 40.11, 46.48 and 25.99 per cent higher with FYM than NF. Paddy straw mulch gave significantly higher economic yields (11.10, 12.56 and 19.28 per cent in pea, okra and radish) compared to no-mulch. Though the economic yields were higher with FYM + NF but the benefit-cost ratios for all the crops were higher with FYM alone due to higher cost of production in other treatments.