2025, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Part C

author(s)
Siddharth Shankar Patre, Arun Kumar Barik, Soumita Chowdhury, Somnath Saha and Sk Naim Aktar

abstract
A field experiment was conducted during winter seasons of two consecutive years i.e., from the month November to January of 2021-22 and 2022-23 at Agricultural Farm, Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, West Bengal with the aim to investigate the effect of energy efficiency of diversified winter baby corn-based cropping sequences in red and lateritic soil. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications having seven treatments (viz. T₁, baby corn-sesame; T₂, baby corn-green gram; T₃, baby corn-baby corn; T₄, baby corn-okra; T₅, baby corn-groundnut; T₆, baby corn-black gram and T₇, baby corn-vegetable cowpea). Experimental results revealed that similar energy inputs were used in both the years of experiments. Energy indices like energy output of grain yield, energy output of Stover yield, total output energy, net energy, energy output: input ratio, energy output efficiency, specific energy, energy productivity, energy intensity (in economic), were observed significantly highest with baby corn in baby corn-groundnut sequence over all other cropping sequences but was statistically at par with baby corn in baby corn-vegetable cowpea sequence. The lowest values were recorded with baby corn in baby corn-okra sequence. With respect to energy intensity in physical term, different baby corn-based cropping sequences did not differ significantly amongst themselves. However, superior energy intensity in physical term was also noted with baby corn in baby corn-groundnut sequence. So, inclusion of legumes (like groundnut and cowpea in baby corn based cropping sequences) was better proposition than inclusion of non-legumes in baby corn-based cropping sequences with respect to energetic assessment of crop diversification of winter baby corn-based cropping sequences in red and lateritic soil of West Bengal.