Soil and water are the most important natural resources in rainfed agriculture. Dry lands are inherently poor in fertility and moisture retention. Successful cultivation of rainfed crops depends on the skillful management of rain water through proper in situ moisture conservation techniques and soil health by adding sizable quantity of organic manures along with inorganic fertilizers. In this context, a field experiment was conducted to study the effect of in situ moisture conservation and nutrient management practices on soil properties and productivity of redgram in a rainfed, sandy loam Alfisol.In situ moisture conservation practices of ridges and furrows and tied ridges with or without sugarcane trash as mulch, and nutrient management practices of application of recommended inorganic fertilizers (12.5 kg N ha^-1 as urea and 12.5 kg P ha^-1 as single super phosphate), 50% of recommended fertilizers + 1.25 t ha^-1 of enriched compost and 2.5 t ha^-1 of enriched compost made from locally available crop residues of green gram, cowpea, groundnut, horse gram and sugarcane trash (enrichment done with rock phosphate @ 25 kg and ZnSO₄ @ 2.5 kg per tonne of residue and inoculated with Phosphobacteria and Rhizobium cultures) were compared with farmers' practice of no moisture conservation and no nutrient application. The results revealed that the net available soil moisture was higher under tied ridges with mulching. Soil bulk density decreased, while porosity and infiltration rate increased, under tied ridges with mulching and 2.5 t ha^-1 of enriched compost application. Soil organic carbon and available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were enhanced due to mulching and moisture conservation practice of tied ridges. Enriched compost application was observed to improve the fertility status of soil after redgram. The root length, root volume and root dry weight of red gram were higher due to tied ridges and with mulching and for the application of 2.5 t ha^-1 of enriched compost. The highest grain yield was for tied ridges with mulching. Application of enriched compost @ 2.5 t ha^-1 significantly increased the grain yield as compared to farmers' practice. The uptake of nutrients was also high under tied ridges with mulching and with enriched compost application. Resource use efficiencies as total rainfall use efficiency and effective rainfall use efficiency and indices as agronomic efficiency and physiological efficiency for applied nutrients were higher for tied ridges with mulching and for enriched compost application. The net return was also higher for the above treatments.