Identifying the Suitable Crop Management Practices for the Higher Crop Productivity in Indus Basin

Abstract

Wheat is an important cereal crop of Pakistan but its per acre yield is low as compared to world average due to traditional sowing methods, late planting, excessive tillage practices and weeds infestation. Therefore, optimum tillage practices and modern sowing methods are need of the hour for the better yield of wheat. In this scenario, a field trial was conducted at the Agronomic Research Area of University of Agriculture Faisalabad during Rabi season 2018-19 to assess the agronomic response of wheat to different tillage and sowing practices. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications of spilt plot arrangement. The research trial was consist of three tillage regimes i.e.zero tillage (ZT), reduced tillage(RT) and conventional tillage(CT) and three sowing methods i.e. flat sowing (FS), ridge sowing (RS) and bed sowing (BS) was kept in subplots. The results demonstrated that all the treatments have significant impact on growth and production but the cost benefit ratio of zero tillage (3.23) was highest followed by reduce tillage (3.12) and conventional tillage (2.94) respectively. Correspondingly, cost benefit ratio of sowing method was found maximum in bed sowing (3.20) followed by ridge (3.08) and flat sowing (3) respectively.