Suitability of different crops and cropping systems for contingency crop planning.

The experiment was conducted at the Dry Land Agricultural Research Centre, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani during Kharif and Rabi seasons of 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. Eight different promising cropping systems of important crop of Marathwada region were tested in varied weather condition under rain fed agriculture. At the end of two year experiment it was investigated that, sowing of all the cropping systems in 26 th MW recorded the highest mean productivity as compared to delayed sowing after 26 th MW. The data further revealed that the parlimillet + pigeonpea (C 5 ), sorghum + pigeonpea (C 4 ), greengram – Rabi sorghum (C 8 ), soybean + pigeonpea (C 6 ) showed the better performance over the sowing dates as compared to all the other cropping systems. The lowest mean productivity of 537 kg/ha was obtained when sorghum + pigeonpea ICS sown in 32 nd MW (DC) followed by D 4 C 4 , D 4 C 1 , D 4 C 7 and D 3 C 4 treatment combinations.