EFFECT OF IRRIGATION AND FERTILIZER ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF Jatropha curcas L. UNDER SOUTH GUJARAT CONDITIONS
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Date
2011-09
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Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari
Abstract
Self-sustainable energy sources are likely to hold the key to
economic development of India in future. It is mandatory to seriously
implement bio-energy development programmes as a part of
environmental sustainability in the form of clean development
mechanism. Publicity in an excessive way triggered a lot of investment in
Jatropha but the return is not so promising. A small step to assess its
potential by applying irrigation and fertilizer were taken up and for that
investigations were conducted at the seed production farm Achhaliya
under Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, during 2009 and 2010 to
study the “Effect of irrigation and fertilizer on growth and yield of
Jatropha curcas L. under South Gujarat conditions”. The soil of the
experimental plots was clayey in texture (17.65 %, 32.45 % and 49.90 %
sand, silt and clay), low in available nitrogen 97.56 Kg/ha N, 47.70 Kg/ha
P2O5 (phosphorus) and 159.28 Kg/ha K2O (potassium).
The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four
irrigation schedules on critical growth stages viz., 0.4 IW/CPE ratio (I1),
0.6 IW/CPE ratio (I2), 0.8 IW/CPE ratio (I3) and 1.0 IW/CPE ratio (I4)
and four levels of fertilizer F0 (N0 P0 K0 g/plant), F1 (N20 P40 K20 g/plant), F2
(N40 P80 K40 g/plant) and F3 (N60 P120 K60 g/plant) replicated thrice. The
growth and yield attributes of Jatropha were significantly influenced by
the treatment I2 and showed highly significant correlation with seed yield.
Amongst the various irrigation schedules, treatment I2 produced
significantly the maximum seed yield (837.58 Kg/ha and 1147.75 Kg/ha),
Stover yield (7968.75 Kg/ha and 11981.58 Kg/ha) with maximum net
realization Rs 9426 per hectare giving net BCR value of 1.58.The
consumptive use of water was 527 mm (average of two years) and water
use efficiency obtained was 2.81 Kg/ha-mm of water (average of two
years). Irrigation schedules failed to affect N, P and K content of different
plant parts of Jatropha but affected significantly its uptake by different
plant components of Jatropha. It was also observed that the Jatropha crop
responded significantly to fertilizer in terms of maximum growth and
yield attributes, seed yield, Stover yield, as well as oil yield. Treatments
F3 (N60 P120 K60 g/plant) produced significantly maximum seed yield
(1409.17 Kg/ha and 1891.25 Kg/ha), Stover yield (11006.08 Kg/ha and
15970.92 Kg/ha) in 2009 and 2010, respectively, with maximum
realization of Rs10062.00 giving net BCR value of 0.55. The
consumptive use of water was 452 mm (average of two years) and water
use efficiency 2.70 Kg/ha-mm of water (average of two years)
The N, P and K contents of different plant parts of Jatropha
was uninfluenced due to irrigation schedule but was affected significantly
owing to application of different levels of fertilizer.
The nutrient uptake by leaves, stem, shell and seed was
significantly affected by irrigation schedule, levels of fertilizer and
interactions between irrigation and fertilizer. In case of major nutrients
viz., N, P and K uptake by leaves, stem, shell and seed, the treatments I2
maintained its superiority over rest of the treatments. Similarly, among
the fertilizer levels, F3 showed higher removal of N, P and K by different
plant parts of Jatropha compared to rest of the treatments. The treatment
combination I2F3 recorded significantly higher uptake of N, P and K as
compared to the remaining treatment combinations.
In case of quality characters viz., oil percent and oil yield
was influenced by irrigation, fertilizer and interactions between irrigation
and fertilizer. Irrigation schedule I2 showed its superiority over rest of the
treatments and recorded the highest oil percent (32.34 and 32.72) and oil
yield (281 Kg/ha and 391 Kg/ha) in the year 2009 and 2010, respectively.
Similarly, the fertilizer levels F3 (N60 P120 K60 g/plant) recorded
significantly the highest oil percent (33.73 and 34.42) and oil yield (578
Kg/ha and 654 Kg/ha) in the year 2009 and 2010, respectively. The
treatment combination I2F3 recorded significantly higher oil per cent
(34.80 and 35.73) and oil yield (589 Kg/ha and 779 Kg/ha) as compared
to the remaining treatment combinations.
In respect to biological properties of soils, the higher level of
fertilizer increased the soil organic carbon as compared to control. The
chemical properties viz., pH and EC were not affected due to irrigation
schedule but affected due to levels of fertilizer. Treatment F3 recorded
significantly lower pH and EC in both the years as compared to rest of the
treatments.
In case of soil fertility, only the available N was influenced
due to irrigation schedule, fertilizer levels and interactions between
irrigation and fertilizer. The soil P2O5 and K2O were significantly
increased with treatment F3 in comparison to rest of the treatments.
Based on the above findings, it can be said that the Jatropha
var, (local) required (13) irrigations based on IW/CPE ratios, over and
above one common irrigation required initially after application of
fertilizer to different plots as per the treatments. The fertilizer treatment
F3 (N60 P120 K60 g/plant) was found most economical dose for getting
optimum yield in vertisols of South Gujarat.
Description
Keywords
dna, vegetables, biological development, topping, irrigation, diseases, rubber, castor (genus), planting, productivity