Study of rainfall and evaporation in coastal districts of Orissa showed that field crops like sesame, green gram and black gram could be grown in summer using summer showers; whereas winter crops like mustard, groundnut and vegetables required supplementary irrigation. The cropping sequences identified to be suitable were: rice-mustard-pulses, rice-mustard-sesame, rice-mustard-vegetables, rice-groundnut/chilli/vegetables/ sesame and rice-black gram (paira) -sesame. Of these, the rice-mustard-sesame sequence was widely adopted by farmers. The 3-crop system increased farm earnings from Rs. 1.25 to Rs. 6.15 rupee^-1 invested with total netprofit of Rs. 32,600 ha^-1. It provided round the year employment to the farm families.