Evaluation of faba bean based crop diversification in Eastern India

Crop diversification experiment was undertaken with faba bean, a potential vegetable legume crops for rainfed as well as irrigated ecosystem and performs well over wide range of soils and agro-climatic conditions. Experimentation was done with five cropping systems under the partial rainfed and fully irrigated conditions. The highest rice equivalent yield of 25.01 t/ha was recorded under irrigated conditions with cropping system rice-faba bean + maize (cob) - green gram cropping system; however, the lowest yield of 16.29t/ha was recorded with rice-faba bean + lentil- green gram, under partial rainfed condition. Overall maximum land productivity of Rs. 2.0/ha was for the rice-faba bean + maize (cob) - green gram cropping system under the irrigated conditions with system's water productivity 1.42-1.79 kg/m(3). The maximum net return of Rs.1.28/ha was for rice - faba bean - green gram under the irrigated ecosystem. The benefit-cost ratio in such diversification was ranged from 1.53 - 2.99. The crop diversification with faba bean not only improved the system productivity but also strengthen the sustainability of the soil.