GROWTH, BIOMASS AND YIELD OF RAINFED PEARL MILLET IN RELATION TO AGROMETEOROLOGICAL INDICES
RISHU SHEKHAR SINGH, M. L. KHICHAR*, RAM NIWAS, ANIL KUMAR AND ANURAG
Department of Agricultural Meteorology
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : dr.mlkhichar@gmail.com)
(Received : 10 February 2016; Accepted : 25 March 2016)
SUMMARY
Field research was conducted at Research Farm of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar to
evaluate the relationship of crop growth, fodder biomass and yield with agrometeorological indices in pear millet. Pearl millet crop was sown in randomized block design with 13 fertility levels of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P2O5), and potassium (K2O) and in three replications. Agrometeorological indices : thermal, helio-thermal and photo-thermal units were computed for all the fertility treatments using weather data recorded at agricultural meteorological observatory. Efficiency of thermal and radiation energy conversion into dry biomass was computed using the thermal and radiation indices. Agrometeorological indices and crop parameters were correlated for developing regression models to predict the different plant biometrics as dry matter, yield and leaf area index in pear millet crop. Yield and yield traits (grain yield, stover yield and biological yield) were correlated with photothermal unit (PTU), thermal (TUE) and radiation use efficiency (RUE) showed higher correlation coefficient with RUE as compared to TUE. The multiple regression models developed for prediction of leaf area index (LAI) and dry matter (DM) based on agrometeorological indices are as under :
DM=0.658-.000056×PTU+90.662×HUE-0.117×RUE (R2=0.98)
LAI=1.895+0.006×4HUE+0.726×RUE (R2=0.74)
Agrometeorological indices were explained up to 74 and 92 per cent variability in leaf area and dry
matter, respectively.
Key words: Fertilizer level, regression, pearl millet, correlation, weather parameters, rainfed