PRODUCTION GUIDELINES

Field Crops> Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)> Cropping Systems

In India many rotations of crops involving wheat are feasible. In the irrigated areas a variety of crops like paddy, jowar, bajra, maize, cotton, toria, arhar, moong, urd etc., are grown in rotation with wheat. Some of the most common rotations are given below:

Rotation

Duration

Paddy-wheat

1 year

Maize-wheat

1 year

Arhar-wheat

1 year

Bajra-wheat

1 year

Maize-wheat-cotton-berseem

2 years

Paddy-wheat-jowar-gram

2 years

Maize-wheat-sugarcane-ratoon

3 years

Maize-wheat-green manuring-potato-sugarcane

3 years

With the development of short duration and photo-insensitive varieties of various crops in areas with assured irrigation, a series of cropping sequences with wheat as one of the main crops have been developed. These cropping sequences have been designated as 'Crop Cafeteria' which denotes that farmers can choose any cropping sequence best suited to their area depending on a agronomic considerations, marketing facilities for the produce, profitability of the cropping sequence, etc. The flexibility in sowing time of high yielding dwarf varieties of wheat and the possibility of growing a successful crop of late sown wheat make possible the adoption of multiple cropping with wheat as one of the main crops in assured irrigated areas. A number of cropping sequences have been tried successfully at various places. Some of them are given below:

Maize-toria-wheat

1 year

Maize-potato-wheat

1 year

Arhar-wheat-moong (green gram)

1 year

Soybean-wheat-moong (green gram)

1 year

Paddy-wheat-lobia (cowpea)

1 year

Paddy-potato-moong (green gram)

1 year

Maize-toria-wheat-moong (green gram)

1 year

Maize-wheat-cheena

1 year

Mixed cropping of wheat with mustard, gram, linseed is common in most of the areas of wheat growing belt. Now-a-days intercropping with autumn sugarcane and potato is also becoming popular in some of the parts of northern India.