SHWETA, KAVITA*, MEENA SEHWAG, RENU MUNJAL, NEELAM AND MEHAK NAGORA
Department of Agronomy
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : kavita.yadav@hau.ac.in)
(Received : 10 May 2023; Accepted : 28 June 2023)
SUMMARY
Wheat is the second most dominant food grain crop in India and third most important cereal fodder crop. It also has a high scope for sustainable improvement in fodder production with
management of deficit irrigation in semi-arid areas by the use of polymers which may be natural or synthetic depending on the source. Hydrogels are also known as super absorbent polymers and are used in agriculture for more than forty years. Gond katira is a natural one and is also known as herbal hydrogel or “Tragacanth katira”. It is obtained from the gum of the shrubs of Astragalus gummifer or Astragalum microcephalus type plants. It contains a 60-70 percent water swellable fraction named bassorin or tragacanth acid along with tragacanthin which is a water soluble fraction. Synthetic hydrogels are quite popular in the market and have more absorbing capacity compared to natural hydrogels and can work for about five years in the soil. Thus, hydrogel application in areas with deficit irrigation shows a wide scope for grain and straw yield improvement. The present study was planned to study the performance of polymers under various irrigation regimes in improving the growth of fodder wheat.
Key words: Wheat, straw yield, Gond katira, hydrogel, SPAD and irrigation