Vegetable Based Multitier Cropping System: A Model for Higher Income for the Farmers in Old Alluvial Soils of West Bengal

Abstract

The weather condition prevailing during the crop season always plays very crucial role in crop production. Off and on crops face aberrant weather like flood that causes total crop failure in low line or flood prone areas. Vagaries of weather spoil the source of income which aggravates the farmer’s poverty. To overcome the problem of crop failure and financial loss in flood prone areas of Gangetic plain in Malda district, vegetable based multi-tier cropping system was propagated in farmers fields on upland situation. The study was conducted with five combinations of horticulture crops at upland situation of 15 farmers fields in Narayanpur village of Malda district of West Bengal for six years from 2014-15 to 2019-20.The farmers are usually growing single climber crop in upland on bower system and most of the land down under remains unutilized. In this situation, multi- tier cropping system is a resilient practice which opens a new door to the farmers for providing more production and income from succeeding crop. The study showed that practice enhanced production, farm income and subsequently increased the benefit cost ratio up to 3.13. Bitter gourd + elephant foot yam cropping system is economically viable and profitable because it provides highest land equivalent ratio and higher Monetary Advantage Index (MAI) value.