Five rice establishment methods viz., line transplanting, random transplanting, throwing of seedlings, drum seeding under puddled field, direct dry manual line sowing; 3 methods of wheat establishment viz., manual line sowing, sowing with zero-till drill and conventional sowing were evaluated to assess the productivity and profitability of rice-wheat system to find out the suitable alternative to the random transplanting method commonly being followed by the farmers. Line transplanting of rice resulted in significantly higher grain yield (5.59 t ha^-1) followed by drum seeding under puddled field (5.32 t ha^-1). Manual line sown wheat produced 7 and 11 per cent more grain yield as compared to conventional sowing and sowing with zero-till drilled wheat, respectively. Considering the rice-wheat system as whole, line transplanted rice followed by manual line sowing of wheat resulted in highest net returns (` 30,577 ha^-1) and benefit: cost ratio (1.75). Line transplanted rice followed by wheat sown with zero-till drill accrued almost similar net returns (Rs. 29,800) and second highest benefit: cost ratio (1.68). Random transplanting followed by conventionally sown wheat can be profitably replaced with line transplanted rice with subsequent wheat established either by manual line sowing or sowing with zero-till drill.