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A 2-year research experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with moldboard ploughing (MP, control) and minimum tillage (MT) as main plots and crop sequences as sub-plots. Summer-winter cropping sequences were fallow-wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) (FW, control), mungbean (Vigna radiataL.)-wheat (MW), sorghum (Sorghum bicolorL.)-wheat (SW), green manure-wheat (GW) and mungbean-chickpea (MC) (Cicer arietinumL.). During 2010–2011, in summer, mungbean crop produced the highest above ground biomass in mungbean-chickpea sequence under MP tillage (4.24 Mg ha–1mungbean) and in mungbean-wheat sequence under MT tillage (4.11 Mg ha–1mungbean). In winter, chickpea gave the highest biomass in mungbean-chickpea sequence under both tillage systems. During 2011–2012, mungbean produced the highest above ground biomass in mungbean-wheat sequence under MT tillage (4.43 Mg ha–1mungbean) and in both the mungbean-chickpea and mungbean-wheat sequences under MP tillage (4.24 and 4.17 Mg ha–1mungbean, respectively). In winter, fallow-wheat sequence gave the highest biomass in both tillage systems. The differences in grain yields were statistically non-significant in both the years. The gross marginal benefit ranged between −190 and 548$ ha–1in the first year and −165 and 1124$ ha–1in the second year. The net benefit values were the highest in mung-chickpea sequence under both tillage systems (1008 and 596$ ha–1under MP and MT, respectively), which gave cost–benefit ratios of 5.45 and 3.68, respectively. Use of legume-based cropping sequences is a sustainable and cost-effective practice in drylands of northern Punjab, Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]