Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during 2015-2016 to find out the effect of agronomic modifications for wheat production in organic farming at Khalsa College Amritsar. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of T1 (Flat planting of wheat i.e. control), T2 (Bed planting of wheat), T3 (T2+intercropping gram in center), T4 (T2+intercropping lentil in center), T5 (Paired row of wheat and gram on bed), T6 (Paired row of wheat and lentil on bed), T7 (T5+straw mulching) and T8 (T6+straw mulching). Agronomic modifications related to planting methods, intercropping and mulching significantly affected the plant height, yield attributes, and productivity of wheat crop. Thus, it can be concluded that the agronomic modifications (intercropping and mulching) are an advantageous manipulation for organic farming, especially for staple crops like wheat. The per cent increase in grain yield due to different treatments over control (T1) was 23.59, 22.18, 21.14, 20.05, 19.72, 19.37, 10.92 in trend T7>T8>T3>T4>T5>T6>T2 respectively.