The effect of stubble height of preceding rice crop on establishment and performance of succeeding utera crop of blackgram in rice – blackgram utera cropping sequence under rainfed shallow lowlands of coastal Orissa revealed that the blackgram crop performed well when the stubble of preceding rice crop was cut to a minimum height of 10 cm above ground level during crop harvest. The highest seed yield of blackgram (5.97 q ha^-1) was recorded where the stubble height of preceding rice crop was kept at 10 cm during crop harvest. The net return (Rs.16091 ha^-1) and benefit : cost ratio (2.44) was also higher in the same treatment plot.