Economic profitability of organic Chickpea vs. organic Wheat in the cotton-based production system in a long-term experimental trial in India

Summary

The SysCom India long-term farming systems comparison field trial (LTE) compares conventional and organic cotton production systems for a period of 20 years (2007 – 2026). The aim is to compare agronomic, economic and ecological performance of cotton systems under different management scenarios (organic, biodynamic, conventional, and Btconventional), and to develop them further. The 2-year crop rotation included cotton or soybean in Kharif season, and wheat in both Rabi seasons (2 nd wheat crop since 2015). However, the production and market price of wheat has been low, especially in the organic and biodynamic systems. To improve profitability, the 2 nd wheat was replaced by chickpea in organic and biodynamic systems since 2019. We assessed the effect of introducing chickpea into the crop rotation on the economic profitability in the organic and biodynamic systems.