Evaluation of rice ( Oryza sativa L.)-based cropping systems for productivity and profitability in the vertisols of Telangana, India

Field experiment with different rice based cropping systems, viz. rice–rice, rice–mustard, rice–chickpea, rice–green gram, rice–sorghum, rice–maize, rice–black gram, rice–cowpea (fodder), rice–sorghum (fodder) were evaluated with rice–rice at RS & RRS, Rudrur, Nizamabad, PJTSAU, Telangana. Green manure–rice–maize and green manure–rice–fodder sorghum produced 15,848 kg REY/ha and 15,292 kg REY/ha respectively, which was significantly more than other cropping systems. Production efficiency of green manure–rice–maize was significantly more (58.26 kg/ha/day) closely followed by green manure–rice–sorghum (54.32 kg/ha/day) and green manure–rice–black gram (54.04 kg/ha/day), while it was lower for green manure–rice–fodder cowpea (39.16 kg/ha/day) and green manure–rice–fodder sorghum (42.09 kg/ha/day). Green manure–rice–maize, green manure–rice–black gram and green manure–rice–fodder sorghum were at par with each other for system net returns with 202,341 Rs/ha, 199,916 Rs/ha, 189,623 Rs/ha respectively, and was least with green manure–rice–fodder cowpea (124,981 Rs/ha) and green manure–rice–rice (148,937 Rs/ha). Energy productivity was higher with green manure–rice–black gram (1.13 kg/MJ) and green manure–rice–green gram (0.91 kg/MJ) cropping system. Green manure–rice–maize, green manure–rice–blackgram are most suitable cropping systems over existing green manure–rice–rice cropping system for vertisols of Telangana state.