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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp2 (2026): Recent Advances in Agriculture

Impact of tillage practices on productivity and economics in groundnut-based cropping systems

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.12593
Submitted
5 November 2025
Published
04-06-2026

Abstract

 

Groundnut production is often limited by declining soil fertility and unsuitable tillage practices, particularly among smallholder farmers cultivating under rainfed conditions. These farmers frequently adopt intensive tillage without understanding its impact on soil properties and crop performance. To address this, a field experiment was conducted during the 2022–23 kharif and rabi seasons at Main Agricultural Research Station (MARS), University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, to evaluate the effects of tillage practices and cropping systems on the productivity of groundnut-based systems in Vertisols. The experiment followed a strip plot design with two tillage practices in the main plots minimum tillage with crop residue incorporation (MT) and conventional tillage without crop residue (CT) and four cropping systems in subplots: groundnut + pigeonpea, groundnut + cotton, groundnut + chilli and groundnut-wheat. Results revealed that MT significantly increased groundnut pod and haulm yields (1392 and 2899 kg ha-1, respectively) compared to CT (1128 and 2304 kg ha-1). Among cropping systems, groundnut-wheat produced the highest pod and haulm yields (1966 and 4033 kg ha-1), while among intercrops, groundnut + pigeonpea performed best (1156 and 2430 kg ha-1), comparable to groundnut + chilli but superior to groundnut + cotton. The MT also recorded a higher groundnut equivalent yield (GEY) of 2345 kg ha-1 than CT (1837 kg ha-1). The groundnut-wheat system achieved the highest GEY (2950 kg ha-1) and groundnut + pigeonpea was the best intercropping option (2132 kg ha-1). Furthermore, MT enhanced biological yield, harvest index and net returns, highlighting the benefits of minimum tillage with residue incorporation for improving productivity and sustainability of groundnut-based cropping systems.

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