MANOJ KUMAR, UMMED SINGH, ISHWAR SINGH, H. P. PAREWA, J. R. VERMA, L. NETAJIT SINGH, M. M. KUMAWAT, P. R. RAIGER AND SARITA
College of Agriculture, Agriculture University, Jodhpur-342304 (Rajasthan), India
Directorate of Extension Education, Agriculture University, Jodhpur-342304 (Rajasthan), India
College of Agriculture, Sumerpur-306902, Pali (Rajasthan), India
Agricultural Research Station, Mandor-342304, Jodhpur (Rajasthan), India
*(e-mail : singhummed@yahoo.co.in)
(Received : 8 June 2021; Accepted : 28 June 2021)
SUMMARY
Efficient sources of nutrients supplying the nutrients with greater efficacy and high yielding pearl millet hybrid with nutrient responsiveness plays an important role in yield enhancement and quality improvement on pearl millet in the arid region under sandy loam soil. To find out the influence of customized fertilizers and hybrids on growth and yield of pearl millet, field experiments were carried out during kharif seasons of 2019 and 2020 at ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet, Research Farm, Agricultural Research Station, Mandor, Jodhpur (Agriculture University, Jodhpur). Customized fertilizer substantially enhanced growth attributes viz., plant height (200.8 and 183.5 cm), days to panicle initiation (23.0 and 22.7 days), days to 50% flowering (46.8 and 44.7 days), days to maturity (86.7 and 83.8 days) during 2019 and 2020, respectively over control. Application of customized fertilizer recorded markedly higher grain yield (2124 and 1896 kg/ha) and straw yield (3611 and 3223 kg/ha) during 2019 and 2020 over control and straight fertilizer. Among hybrids, substantially taller plants were observed by the pearl millet hybrid ‘MPMH 17’ (192.6 cm) during 2019 and ‘RHB 173’ (171.6 cm) during 2020. The hybrid ‘RHB 173’ took a greater number of days to panicle initiation (23.8 and 23.7 days), days to 50% flowering (49.1 and 48.0 days) and days to maturity (84.3 and 82.2 days) during 2019 and 2020. Economic analysis envisages, application of customized fertilizer fetched significantly higher gross return ( 60,528 and 56,872/ha), net return ( 34,072 and 36,307/ha) and B: C ratio (2.75 and 2.49) during 2019 and 2020 over control. Likewise, markedly higher gross return ( 60,109 and 55,638/ha), net return ( 40,361 and 35,061/ha) and B: C ratio (3.02 and 2.68) was obtained by hybrid, ‘MPMH 17’ during 2019 and 2020.
Key words:Customized fertilizer, hybrids, MPMH 17, pearl millet, yield