INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT IMPACT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF HYBRID AND COMPOSITE CULTIVARS OF PEARL MILLET (PENNISETUM GLAUCUM)
BASANTI CHINTAPALLI*, SUBHASH C. BIYAN, POOJA DHUPPAR AND D. SARVESHWARA
RAODepartment of Botany, Dayalbagh
Educational Institute (Deemed University) Agra, 282005.
*(e-mail : basanthich@gmail.com)
(Received: 11 June, 2012, Accepted: 15 July, 2013)
SUMMARY
The potential performance of Hybrid Pusa 605 and Composite Pusa 443 cultivars of Pearl millet with respect to Integrated Nutrient Management practices in the semi-arid Western Indo-Gangetic plains region of Agra was evaluated in this paper. Azospirillium + PSB + FYM treatment showed significant increase in vegetative growth in terms of plant height, number of leaves per plant, tiller thickness and also panicles per plant, panicle thickness in both hybrid and composite cultivars of Pearl millet is observed when compared to the control. However, the hybrids exhibited more grain yield (1.47 t/ha) in comparision to composite cultivar (1.30 t/ha). The composite cultivar on the other hand, improved green fodder yield (76.5 t/ha) over hybrid cultivar (62.36 t/ha).
Key words : Management practices, Azospirillium, PSB, FYM, grain yield and pearl millet