Conservation agricultural practices for enhancing productivity of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in rainfed areas

A field experiment was undertaken at Regional Agriculture Research Station, Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh during rabi 2017-18 on vertisols to enhance the productivity of chickpea in rainfed areas through conservation agricultural practices involving tillage and crop residues retention. The present investigation was carried out with three tillage methods (Conventional tillage - two harrowing + planking; Reduced tillage -one harrowing + planking and Zero tillage) and two types of crop residue retention (@2.5 t/ha) (with crop residue retention @2.5 t/ha and without crop residue retention) sown at plant geometry of 30 x 10 cm in split plot design replicated four times. Conservation tillage has recorded higher grain yield (1699 kg/ha) and Net returns (Rs 44,275/ha) and was at par with reduced tillage (1592 kg/ ha). Significantly higher soil moisture (24.4 and 13.2%) was observed with crop residue retention at 30 and 60 DAS respectively. Higher net returns (Rs 42,927/ha) and BCR of 2.46 was observed with crop residue retention (@2.5 t/ha).