PERFORMANCE OF SINGLE-CUT FORAGE SORGHUM GENOTYPES TO FERTILITY LEVELS CHOUDHARY
KENDRA PAL SINGH, P. C. CHAPLOT, H. K. SUMERIYA AND GOPAL LAL CHOUDHARY
Department of Agronomy
Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology,
Udaipur-313 001 (Rajasthan), India
*(e-mail: kptogas@gmail.com ; **pcchaplot@gmail.com)
(Received : 04 August 2016; Accepted : 13 September 2016)
SUMMARY
A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2015 at Udaipur, Rajasthan on clay loam soil to assess the effect of fertility levels [50% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF)], 75 per cent RDF, 100 per cent RDF (80 kg N+40 kg P2O5+40 kg K2O/ha) and 125 per cent RDF on single-cut forage sorghum genotypes (SPH 1752, CSH 13, PC 1080, SPV 2185, CSV 20 and CSV 23). Among single-cut forage sorghum genotypes, SPH 1752 proved significantly superior in respect to plant height, stem girth, leaves/plant, leaf : stem ratio and dry matter accumulation. These improvements in growth led the genotype SPH 1752 to produce significantly higher green and dry fodder yield by 9.9, 11.6, 15.2, 31.0, 34.7, and 9.7, 11.5, 13.5, 28.8 and 32.2 per cent over genotypes CSH 13, CSV 23, SPV 2185, PC 1080 and CSV 20, respectively. This genotype also fetched highest net returns of Rs. 57516/ha and B : C ratio of 2.40. The crop fertilized with 125 per cent RDF recorded significantly highest plant height, stem girth, leaves/plant, leaf : stem ratio and dry matter accumulation over application of 100, 75 and 50 per cent RDF. The magnitude of increase in green and dry fodder yield was of the order of 4.6, 11.4, 18.6 and 10.1, 17.8, 29.1 per cent, respectively. Application of 125 per cent RDF also fetched highest net returns (Rs. 50660/ha) and B : C ratio (2.00) as compared to lower fertility levels.
Key words: Single-cut sorghum genotypes, fertility levels, growth characters, fodder yield, economics