PRODUCTION POTENTIAL AND PROFITABILITY OF SOME RICE (ORYZA-SATIVA) BASED CROPPING SYSTEMS INVOLVING SEQUENCE CROPPING OF PULSES AND OILSEEDS IN RICE FALLOWS

A field experiment was carried out at Hyderabad during 1990-91 and 199 1-92 to develop and test suitable rice (Oryza sativa L.)-based croppin g system and also appropriate tillage practice for some upland crops g rown after rice. Groundnut (Arrachis hypogaea L.), blackgram (Phaseolu s mungo L.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) and castor (Ricinus comm unis L.) were used as the test crops with different tillage practices, viz tillage, ploughing twice with country plough, ploughing with bull ock-drawn mouldboard plough and disc harrowing, working with cultivato r twice, and ploughing with tractor-drawn mouldboard plough once and r otovator twice. Land preparation with tractor-drawn mouldboard plough once and rotary tiller twice recorded higher net castor. However, rice -blackgram sequence registered higher production efficiency, and rice- castor gave higher land-utilization efficiency. Rice-groundnut sequenc e proved more sustainable and profitable, especially for Telangana reg ion of Andhra Pradesh.