Effect of conservation tillage and weed management practices in rice - sweet corn - cow pea cropping system on growth, yield and economics of rice in coastal Odisha

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of conservation tillage and weed management practices on rice-maize-cowpea system in a strip-plot design with three replications at Central Research Station, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar in a sandy loam Typic Endoaquepts. The present data refer to growth, yield and economics of rice crop during 2016 to 2018 after completion of the 5th cropping cycle of the permanently laid out experiment. The growth and yield attributing characters of rice were maximum in conventionally tilled transplanted rice followed by zero tilled maize and cow pea (CT (TPR)-ZT-ZT) and were lowest under zero tillage for all the three crops in the system (ZT (DSR)-ZT-ZT) during both the years of experimentation resulting in the highest grain yield of 5.07 t/ha, which was 29.0% higher than the zero tilled system (3.93 t/ ha), but was on a par with conventionally tilled transplanted rice followed by conventional tilled maize i.e., CT (TPR)-CT-F and CT (DSR)-CT-ZT. Residue's retention in zero tillage improved all the characters over zero tillage alone. Integrated weed management with pre-emergence application of pretilachlor @ 0.5 kg/ha + mechanical weeding (30 DAT/DAS) + one hand weeding at 60 DAT/ DAS resulted in higher growth and yield attributes of rice there by 7.0 and 19.8% more grain yield over chemical and cultural method, respectively. But direct seeded rice under conventional tillage followed by conventional tilled maize and zero tilled cow pea (CT (DSR)-CT-ZT) in the system along with integrated weed management practice generated higher gross returns, net returns and B:C for the crop and was the most viable and profitable option for modern farming in terms of conservation agriculture.