ROHIT KUMAR, MAGAN SINGH, SANJEEV KUMAR, SAKSHI NIMBAL, JATIN BADWAL, KARAN SINGH AND SUNNY KUMAR
Agronomy Section, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132 001 (Haryana), India
Department of Agronomy, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
Department of Agriculture, Samastipur-848 205 (Bihar), India
*(e-mail: rohitdholpuria@hau.ac.in)
(Received: 14 May 2026; Accepted : 22 June 2026)
SUMMARY
A field experiment was conducted at the Forage Research and Management Centre, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, during the Rabi season in 2024-25 to study the effect of Phosphorus and Calcium management on growth, yield and economics of fodder turnip (Brassica rapa L.) during the lean period. The experiment consisted of six treatments (T1: Control, T2: No Phosphorus (P), T3: 75% RDF of P, T4: 100% RDF of P, T5: 75% RDF of P + Foliar application of Calcium, T6: 100% RDF of P + Foliar application of Calcium) in a randomised block design with five replications. The results revealed that significantly higher plant height at harvest (73.94 cm), number of leaves per plant (19.40), and leaf area (796.6 cm2) were observed in T6 (100% RDF of P + foliar application of calcium), outperforming all treatments with the highest crop growth rate (13.90 g/m2/ day), green fodder yield (68.78 t/ha) and dry fodder yield (7.14 t/ha), registering 49.43 % and 46.31 % gains in green and dry fodder, respectively, over the control. Treatment T6 also recorded the maximum benefit-cost ratio (5.09).
Key words: Calcium, green fodder, lean period, phosphorus, turnip