Soil & Environ.

26(1): 75-80, 2007

Sustainable cropping system for rain-fed areas in Pothwar, Pakistan

P. Khaliq1, S. Ahmed2, N. M. Cheema1
1
Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad,
2
University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Abstract
Summer fallow is practiced by 80% of the farmers in the rain-fed area of Pothwar region in Pakistan, mainly
to stabilize wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield. However, this practice has the demerits of less net returns from
cropping system due to mono cropping pattern, soil degradation and poor soil water storability. The objectives of
this study were to assess the profitability of various cropping systems having full kharif season fallow, partial
kharif season fallow and eliminated fallow during kharif season and effect of fallowing on the productivity of
subsequent wheat crop in the rabi season. Three cropping systems viz. fallow-wheat-fallow-wheat (a full summer
season fallow: June-October), maize fodder-wheat-maize fodder-wheat (a partial summer fallow treatment:
August-October) and mungbean-wheat-mungbean-wheat (eliminating summer fallow by planting a full season
kharif crop) were studied in a randomized complete block design. Treatments were arranged in split plot fashion
with three replications during 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. The cropping systems were assigned in the main plots;
tillage practices i.e. shallow tillage with cultivator and deep tillage with moldboard were in the sub-plots. The 2-yr
mean wheat grain yield after summer fallow was 16% greater than following maize fodder-wheat cropping system
and 113% than following mungbean-wheat cropping system but the net benefit from fallow-wheat cropping system
was lowest (Rs. 5657 ha-1) followed by mungbean-wheat cropping system (Rs. 6372 ha-1) and the highest net
returns of Rs. 20072 ha-1 were received from maize fodder-wheat cropping system. Hence, when winter rains are
predicted below the normal and drought is expected to prevail, the practice of deep tillage with moldboard in
maize fodder-wheat- maize fodder-wheat cropping system using recommended dose of fertilizer along with FYM at
5 tons ha-1 is recommended as sustainable cropping system for the rain-fed areas of Pothwar region in Pakistan.
Key words: Triticum aestivum, sustainable, rain-fed, cropping system, tillage

Introduction
Rainfall is the most important agro-climatic variable
that determines the cropping system and overall agriculture
productivity in the rain-fed area of Pothwar, Pakistan. There
is substantial year to year and season to season variability
and the rainfall pattern is generally erratic in nature. About
70% rains are received in summer season as high intensity
rains. The existing cropping systems are not in harmony
with the rainfall pattern and about 50% of the annual rainfall
is lost due to low water intake rate and lack of suitable soil
management practices (Abdullah, 1987). Drought is
becoming serious threat for the farmers of the area and the
farmers some times faced huge financial losses due to crop
failure. In Pothwar, summer fallowing is dominated in the
present cropping systems. It may be either for one whole
year or seasonal fallow system and wheat crop is clearly
dominated in all cropping patterns. Summer fallowing is a
common and traditional practice in mera lands (fields
located at a distance from the village) but about 80% of the
rain-fed areas growing wheat are practicing fallow-wheat
system (Razzaq et al., 1994). Through fallow management,
farmers conserve monsoon water for coming winter wheat
crop but at the same time it has some demerits including
excessive cultivation of land just to conserve summer
rainwater, which not only increase tillage cost during fallow
period to control mostly less than 25% with conventional
tillage (McGec et al., 1979). Due to mono crop culture
particularly during drought period, the chances of wheat
crop failure are highest and the farmers could not get even
the cost of inputs back. Under these circumstances it was
planed to research for the improvement in the present
cropping system.
The benefits of deep tillage over shallow cultivation
with traditional cultivator have often been cited. Practice of
deep tillage before the onset of monsoon rains enhances the
ability to capture and retain precipitation in the soil (Ishaq et
al., 2003) increased root proliferation and improved
utilization of soil water and nutrients (Campbell et al.,
2000). Deep ploughing loosens the soil, increases infiltration
during rainfall, enhances root penetration and increased 21%
yield (Khan and Afzal, 1990; Razzaq et al., 1994). Deep
tillage also reduces the number of ploughings and weeds
problem. But still it is not widely adopted in rain-fed areas
of districts Rawalpindi and Islamabad (Khan et al., 1992).
The objectives of this study were to quantify the net returns
from major cropping systems in Pothwar and suggest a
sustainable cropping system for higher profitability.

*E-mial:
© 2007, Soil Science Society of Pakistan (http://www.sss-pakistan.org)
76 Khaliq, Ahmed and Cheema
Materials and Methods
The study was conducted under rain-fed conditions in
Pothwar, plateau for two years (2000-02), at National
Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad. The
experimental site is located in sub-humid, subtropical region,
510 meters above sea level, lying at Longitude 73.08 oE and
Latitude 33.42 oN. The experiment was designed to study the
agro-economic relationship of three wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) based cropping systems, i.e. fallow-wheat-
fallow-wheat, maize fodder-wheat-maize fodder-wheat and
mungbean-wheat-mungbean-wheat, two tillage systems:
shallow (cultivator) and deep (moldboard) were studied to
evaluate their impact on sustainable wheat yield under rain-
fed conditions. Maize was grown as fodder crop where as
wheat and mungbean were grown for grain yields. This
cropping system trial was completed in two cycles and every
cycle had two phases i.e. rabi and kharif. The studies were
initiated for kharif phase during kharif 2000 with sowing of
mungbean and maize fodder in the respective plots. Wheat
was planted during rabi 2000-01 in all plots as second phase
of the study. This completed one cycle of the cropping
system. In second cycle of the trial same order of pre-
assigned kharif crops were sown in the respective (as in first
cycle) plots during kharif 2001, and again wheat was planted
in all plots during rabi 2001-02. The experiment was laid out
in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and
treatments were arranged in split plot fashion with three
replications. Cropping systems were placed in the main
plots, tillage in the sub-plots and fertilizer levels in the sub-
sub plots. The size of sub-sub plots was 17 x 6 m2.
Fertilizers were randomly applied to each sub-sub plot. The
recommended dose of fertilizers for each crop and farmyard
manure at the rate of 5 tons ha-1 as detail given in Table 1
were broadcasted in the respective plot at the time of
planting.
Table 1. Cultural practices for kharif and rabi crop.
Seed Rate
Crops Variety
(kg ha-1)
Mungbean MN-209 25
Maize fodder Gauhar 50
Wheat Chakwal-97 100
The trial was conducted under high rainfall conditions
of Islamabad. Agro-climatically, there are two dominant
cropping seasons commonly known as rabi (winter) and
kharif (summer). During rabi season, wheat was grown from
third week of November to first week of May while, kharif
crop (Mungbean) growing season was mid July to third
week of October. The growing season for maize fodder was
mid July to mid September. Both the kharif crops
(mungbean and maize fodder) were established using
agronomic practices recommended for each crop under rain-
fed conditions and were kept uniform during both cycles
(Table 1). After harvest of previous wheat (rabi, 1999-2000)
in the second week of May, the land preparation was started
for first phase (kharif, 2000) to plant mungbean and maize
fodder crops. The pre assigned sub-plots for maize fodder,
mungbean and fallow were ploughed with moldboard,
followed by cultivator with planker and the rest of the sub-
plots were ploughed with cultivator followed by planking.
The deep tillage treatment was given with moldboard only
once before on-set of monsoon rains. Thereafter, ploughing
was done thrice with cultivator followed by planker in all the
plots. The pre-assigned randomized fertilizer treatments for
each crop were applied to respective plots and then
incorporated into the soil, followed by planking. In both
cycles all agronomic practices were kept uniform for
planting wheat. Details about names of varieties, seeds and
fertilizers rates and row spacing are given in Table 1. Wheat
was sown in November 2000 and 2001. The dates of
planting and harvesting are given in Table 2. The plots,
where fallow-wheat system was allocated, were given
similar tillage operation as given to other kharif crops but on
fallow plots no crop was planted. However, fallow plots
were kept weed free during kharif season by using twice
cultivator, followed by planker. Weeds problem was very
serious at the experimental site. To minimize their effect on
crop yield, weeds were controlled manually once in each
phase (rabi and kharif seasons). Wheat and mungbean were
harvested at physiological maturity, but the maize was
harvested at 50% silking stage for fodder. Four sub-sample
areas of one-meter square were marked randomly from each
plot to obtain data on each recorded parameter before
harvest. Similarly, four samples of one-meter square each
were harvested randomly from each plot to obtain yield data
and then converted in kilograms per hectare (kg ha-1).
Harvesting of the crops was done manually. The wheat was
Fertilizer (kg ha-1) FYM Row Spacing
N P (t ha-1) (cm)
20 50 5 25
100 50 5 25
90 90 5 25
threshed with plot combine (Hege), while mungbean was
threshed manually.
The data collected were analyzed by Analysis of
Variance techniques (ANOVA) that were accomplished by
using MSTAT software. Duncan’s Multiple Range test
(DMR) was applied to compare treatment means (Steel and
Torrie, 1980). The pooled experimental data were analyzed
 Sustainable cropping system for rain-fed areas
Table 2. Planting and harvesting dates of Crops.
Crop Planting date Harvesting date
Maize fodder 12-07-2000 17-09-2000
Mungbean 12-07-2000 21-10-2000
Wheat 25-11-2000 11-05-2001
by using the methodology described by CIMMYT (1988).
The partial budgets were constructed for different cropping
systems.
Results and Discussion
Productivity of the rain-fed areas in Pakistan is largely
dependent on rainfall which is unpredictable. Huge
variations above and below normal rainfall have been
observed from long-term as well as short-term rainfall
pattern. Rainfall pattern recorded during the study period
was above normal during kharif and far below normal in
rabi. During kharif 2000 rainfall of 1144 mm and in kharif
2001 rainfall of 995 mm was recorded. The rainfall pattern
during 2000 kharif was torrential where as light showers
were evenly distributed during 2001 season. Hence, the
rainfall pattern during 2001 was environment friendly and
created conducive conditions for crop growth. The growth
and yields of the kharif crops during 2001 were therefore,
better than the kharif 2000. Reporting similar results Lal and
Ahmadi (2000) stated that when the seasonal rainfall varied,
the difference in yields among the seasons also varied. The
rainfall during 2000 was heavy and torrential, which lowered
the performance of mungbean especially at flowering and
pod filling stages thus reduced the mungbean yield. Maize
fodder escaped from the ill effects of heavy rains; therefore,
yields during both the years were close to potential level.
Both the winter seasons passed through severe drought
with negative effects on the crop. However, wheat crop
2001-02 was better than the wheat 2000-01 (Table 3) that
may be due to 50% more rains received during 2001-02.
Unger (1979), Almetove et al. (1984), Amin et al. (1989)
supporting the results of this study reported significantly
higher wheat yield only because of more rainfall during the
wet years. During rabi 2000-01 due to severe drought, the
crop condition was not good at early stages. This affected
the over all yield of the wheat crop. Al-Darly and Levery
(1985), Chevalier and Chiha (1986) and Bordovsky et al.
(1999) have reported that if moisture stresses occur on crop
at seedling stage, the crop growth is poor and plants are
unable to overcome these ill effects till maturity. To save the
rabi crop from total loss, irrigation was applied during 2000-
01 following the recommendation of Malhotra and Sexna
(2002).
77
Planting date Harvesting date
13-07-2001 18-09-2001
13-07-2001 26-10-2001
21-11-2001 08-05-002
Table 3. Wheat grain yield (kg ha-1) as affected by
cropping systems during 2000-01 and 2001-02.
Years
Cropping Systems Means
2001-02 2000-01
Fallow-wheat 1776 a 1475 c 1626 A
Maize-wheat 1513 b 1285 d 1399 B
Mungbean-wheat 733 f 797 e 765 C
Means 1341 A 1186 B ---
Any two means not sharing a common letter in column or row
differ significantly at 5% probability level using DMRT.
Cropping systems are the major components of crop
management and have great influence on soil water contents.
In the present study, wheat-fallow was found to be the best
cropping system to conserve more moisture in the soil (data
not presented). Rains in the fallow period recharged the
ground water that resulted in higher wheat stand
establishment, greater biomass production and higher grain
yields in wheat-fallow cropping system. The second better
cropping system to accumulate moisture in the soil was
maize fodder-wheat. The maize was harvested as fodder and
in this cropping system; fallow period was shorter than the
fallow-wheat and longer than mungbean-wheat system. In
mungbean-wheat cropping system, fallow period was
eliminated because its stay in the field was long. The
mungbean thus consumed more moisture than maize fodder.
The duration of maize fodder was short so soil moisture
depletion was less (Selles et al., 1999).
The performance of wheat (growth, grain yield and the
yield components) was better in fallow-wheat system
followed by maize fodder-wheat system and lowest in case
of mungbean-wheat cropping system (Table 4). This
differential response of wheat in various cropping systems
was mainly contributed by higher accumulation of moisture
in the soil which was higher in fallow-wheat system
followed by maize-wheat system. The economic analysis of
the data revealed that net benefit from fallow-wheat system
was less (Rs. 9255) than the maize fodder-wheat system (Rs.
21814). The lowest net benefit of Rs. 6628 was received
from mungbean-wheat system. This was due to the fact that
in fallow-wheat system only wheat crop was planted in rabi
season and the land was not utilized in kharif, which resulted
in less net benefits over the year. Similar results have been
78 Khaliq, Ahmed and Cheema
reported by Johnson et al. (1984) and Unger (1979).
Including short duration crop like maize fodder in kharif not
only shorten the fallow period but also fetches more net
benefit (Smoilk and Thomas, 1991; Moddy et al., 1963;
Watkins et al., 1999). The elimination of fallow period by
growing long duration summer crop like mungbean was less
economical under drought condition. This was probably due
to occurrence of drought during winter, which resulted in
uneconomic wheat yield. Under such conditions change in
the existing fallow cropping system is desirable because
planting kharif crops during normal rainfall will be more
economical and it could minimize the possibility of crop
failure (Black and Siddoway, 1979; Johnson et al., 1984;
Wysocki, 1987). However, the best alternative under
moisture stress condition is partial fallowing or growing
short duration cover crop like maize fodder which is more
economical than bare fallow.
Table 4. Wheat grain yield (kg ha-1) as affected by
cropping systems and tillage practices.
Tillage Practices
Cropping Systems Means
Cultivator Moldboard
Fallow-wheat 1575 b 1677 a 1626 A
Maize-wheat 1341 d 1457 c 1399 B
Mungbean-wheat 703 f 827 e 765 C
Means 1206 B 1320 A -----
Any two means not sharing a common letter in column or row
differ significantly at 5% probability level using DMRT.
NS = Non-significant
In the present study, deep tillage was done before the
onset of monsoon to conserve the excessive rain water
followed by the recommendation of Razzaq et al., 2002;
Hillel, 1982; Drinkwater et al., 2000. Several reasons lead to
study deep tillage including benefits of deep tillage such as
breaking the hard pan in the compacted soils (Ishaque et al.,
2003; Vaughan et al., 2000), improving soil physical and
chemical condition, reduces runoff, increases rainwater
infiltration rate, enhancing nutrient availability, improving
root proliferation and weed control (Watkings et al., 1999;
Razzaq et al., 2002). In this study during both the kharif
seasons non-significant effect of deep and shallow tillage
was recorded to conserve moisture in the soil. This was
probably due to occurrence of heavy rainfall during both the
kharif seasons that might have masked the advantage of deep
tillage to conserve more moisture than shallow tillage.
Another possibility for non-significant difference of
moisture content among the tillage practices was its
dependence upon rainfall pattern, i.e. amount and its
distribution (Khan and Afzal, 1990). The plant nutrients (NP
and OM) were higher with shallow tillage. Data on water
infiltration, root density and weeds were not recorded.
However, as reported by Watkings et al. (1999) deep tillage
created better tilth, enhanced the infiltration process and
increased the root proliferation. The heavy rain water might
have depleted some of the plant nutrients during infiltration
process. Secondly, due to better root proliferation crops were
healthy and had taken up more nutrients from the soil. The
overall effect of deep tillage on growth and yield of kharif
crops was better than the shallow tillage.
During rabi season, the effect of deep tillage was not
prominent and inconsistent response of wheat crop was
recorded. Moisture stress was recorded during rabi season
that might have mitigated the advantage of deep tillage. The
growth and grain yield of wheat was, therefore, non-
significant due to tillage practices. Results of this study
suggested that the beneficial effects of deep tillage are
closely related with moisture content in the soil (Khan and
Afzal, 1990). In the light of results of this study it is
suggested that deep tillage should only be recommended
after having a thorough review of long and short term
rainfall pattern, physical and chemical properties of the soil,
and soil compaction status because proper tillage can
alleviate soil related problems while improper tillage may
lead to a range of degenerative processes (Lal, 1993). It is
also suggested that some innovative techniques for moisture
conservation, most widely adopted worldwide may also be
tested under Pakistan environment. These include zero-
tillage, reduced tillage and bed planting (Hobbs et al., 1997;
Gupta et al., 2003; Yadav et al., 2002).
Conclusions
From the results of these studies and the studies
conducted in the past, it can be concluded that under normal
whether conditions legume based cropping system was more
remunerative than the fallow-wheat cropping system. But
mungbean crop was found sensitive to weather conditions
and during prolonged rainfall the vegetative growth was
prolonged that resulted in low yield. When the monsoon and
winter rains were below normal, the mungbean yield was
optimum, but productivity of following crop (wheat) was
much reduced that resulted in less net return from the
cropping system. The growing of maize fodder in fallow
period was more remunerative during normal as well as dry
seasons and it does not lower the net return of the following
crop. Thus the crop productivity in the rain-fed area is
largely dependent on amount and pattern of rainfall. Effect
of deep tillage was more prominent at optimum moisture
condition. During above normal rainfall or dry season deep
tillage effect was non-significant. Summarizing the results of
these studies one can conclude that in an environment when
rainfall during kharif was above normal and the rabi passed
through drought, the practice of deep tillage was found to be
better than ploughing the land with cultivator. Similarly,
ploughing the land with moldboard proved to be the best
interaction.
 Sustainable cropping system for rain-fed areas 79

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