Deciphering most productive cropping systems for sustainable farming in middle Gangetic plains of Indian subcontinent

The field experiments were conducted during 2020– 2021 at the Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Samastipur, Bihar, India. The main aim of the study was to find out a suitable cropping system to give higher productivity and profitability. Ten cropping systems, viz . Rice–Wheat, Rice–Wheat–Greengram, Rice–Potato+maize, Rice–Mustard–Greengram, Rice–Lentil–Maize, Maize–Mustard–Greengram, Finger millet–Wheat–Greengram, Soybean–Potato–Sunflower, Rice–Pea–Wheat–Greengram, Rice–Mustard–Maize+Greengram were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results suggested that the highest system productivity was obtained from the Rice–Potato+maize (24 t/ha) cropping system followed by soybean-potato-sunflower (22 t/ha) than all other cropping systems, however, these were at par. Water productivity calculated on net return basis was found highest in rice-poato+maize (29 Rs/m ³ water applied) and was followed by soybean-potato-sunflower (25 Rs/m ³ water applied) cropping system and was statistically at par. Rice-potato+maize cropping system resulted in maximum net return (3,07,889 Rs/ha) in comparison to all other cropping systems followed by soybean-potato-sunflower (2,66,370 Rs/ha) cropping system. Rice-potato+maize cropping system gave highest B-C ratio (3.0) followed by soybean-potato-sunflower (2.8) and finger millet-wheat-green gram (2.8) cropping systems.