Performance of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) varieties under varying sowing methods and input levels
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Date
2005
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MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
In order to evolve low cost, resource efficient production technology for durum wheat, a field experiment entitled “Performance of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) varieties under varying sowing methods and input levels” was conducted on clay loam soils having medium fertility status (267 kg, 20.58 kg and 384 kg available N, P and K ha-1, respectively), EC 0.53 dSm-1 and pH 8.20 at the Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur during the year 2002-03 and 2003-04. The objectives were to evaluate performance of durum wheat varieties and to workout agronomic and economic feasibility of furrow irrigated raised bed (FIRB) and cross sowing methods over conventional line sowing as well as to assess productivities under varying input levels (fertilizer and seed) and possibility for reducing these in relation to aforesaid production factors especially sowing methods.
The experiment consisted 2 durum varieties (Raj 1555 and HI 8498), 3 sowing methods (Conventional line sowing at 22.5 cm row distance, cross sowing at spacing of 22.5 cm x 22.5 cm in both direction with use of half seed rate in each direction, FIRB system having 2 wheat rows on each bed formed at a distance of 70 cm) and 5 input levels (Recommended 100% seed rate + 100% fertilizer dose, 125% seed rate + 125% fertilizer dose, 100% seed rate + 75% fertilizer dose, 75% seed rate + 100% fertilizer dose and 75% seed rate + 75% fertilizer dose of recommendation). These 30 treatment combinations, were evaluated under split plot design allocating combination of varieties and sowing methods as main plot and input levels as sub plot treatments and replicated thrice.
The results showed that durum variety HI 8498 produced significantly higher tillers m-2 and had enhanced nutritional (N and P) status in plant parts as well as accumulated maximum quantum of biomass m-2 and nutrients (N, P and K).
These manifested in production of higher effective tillers m-2 and improvement in yield attributes (test weight, grain weight ear-1 and grain yield ear-1) with concomitant increase in crop productivity in terms of grain and biological yield by 7.50 and 5.20 per cent
over Raj 1555. This variety exhibited superiority in grain and flour quality in terms of protein content and sedimentation value. Besides these growing of HI 8498 gave additional net returns of Rs.2732 ha-1 over Raj 1555 and increased B:C ratio from 2.10 to 2.29.
Among sowing methods, cross sowing significantly enhanced overall growth of the crop in terms of total tillers m-2, biomass accumulation and facilitated plants to exploit below ground resources as evince from higher concentration of nutrients (N and P) at successive stages and uptake of N, P and K at each growth stage alongwith total uptake by the crop as compared to line sowing and FIRB system. These improvements reflected in realization of increased grain, straw and biological yields by 9.0, 9.2 and 9.13 per cent, respectively over line sowing. The corresponding increases over FIRB system were by 13.0, 15.1 and 14.2 per cent. The cross sowing also proved economically viable as it fetched additional profit of Rs.3319 ha-1 and Rs 4971.3 ha-1 with B:C ratio of 2.33 compared to these realized under line sowing (Rs.29604.70 ha-1, 2.19) and FIRB system (Rs.27952.70 ha-1, 2.07). The adoption of FIRB system showed marginal reduction in various studied parameters alongwith crop productivity and net returns over line sowing method.
The interaction effect revealed marked variation in crop response to input levels under each sowing method and vice-versa. Under line sowing, increase in inputs by 25 per cent each of seed rate and fertilizer over recommendation though had positive impacts on overall performance of the crop but failed to provide additional gains in crop productivity and profitability. While reduction in inputs by 25% either fertilizer and seed + fertilizer over recommended level adversely affected overall productivity and profitability.
Conversely, cross sowing with higher input level of 125% seed + 125% fertilizer over recommendation enhanced biomass and nutrients accumulation, consequently production of higher effective tillers and thereby realized highest productivity of the crop in terms of grain (56.97 qha-1) and biological yields (125.80 q ha-1). While under FIRB system, inputs levels failed to show any significant variation in crop performance as well as productivity and profitability.
Among combination of studied production factors, cross sowing of variety HI 8498 with 125% SR + 125% FD produced highest yields (58.13 qha-1grain and 66.94 qha-1 straw) and fetched net returns of Rs. 38424 ha-1 and B:C ratio of 2.53.
Description
Studies on the erformance of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) varieties under varying sowing methods and input levels
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Citation
Jain and Singhi 2005