DIVERSIFIED FARMING OF SUGARCANE AND PULSES: AN ACCESS TOWARDS MAINTAINING YAWNING PRODUCTIVITY GAPS AND SECURE FOOD FOR INDIA.

There has been a wrong notions that pulse crops are meant for the poor and marginal lands. But scientists have demonstrated that with the available technology adoption, the yield of pulses as well as sugarcane could be considerably increased depending on the situation, varieties and improved technologies. Pulses have very good opportunity to find place in different agro-ecosystems. Now-days, soil organic carbon and crop productivity have become major concern in sustainable agriculture. From 1980 to 2016, the total cropped area of pulses in India increased from 22.46 to 26.40M ha. Due to stagnate in production and an increase in population, the per capita availability of pulses and sugar have been declined during 2009-2015.In 2016 production of pulses and also sugar have increased providing pulse 47.23 g/capita/day and sugar 23 kg per capita annually. Significant enhancement in area and productivity of pulse is possible by growing as intercrop with sugarcane crop which is grown in more than 5.15 million ha area in the country. Thus there is a great scope of increasing area under pulse through crop diversification /intensification .Adoption of pulse crops with autumn (October) planted cane in furrow-irrigated raised bed system with 90cm row spacing of sugarcane planted in furrow/trenches and component crop is on raised beds/spaces between two trenches. This approach also provides great scope for increasing crop yield and optimizing input use efficiencies in the system. Crop residues recycling of pulses addresses the key issue of decreasing soil organic carbon created due to indiscriminate use of fertilizers and lower use of organic manures. Mechanization of diversified cropping system will certainly boost the adoption of recommended technologies by the farmers, Thus cost of production could be reduced and profitability may be increased with introducing these crops in irrigated agro-ecosystem with improving soil fertility and food security in sustainable way for longer period.