D. S. AHLAWAT*, MEENA SEWHAG, NARESH SANGWAN AND NEERAJ PAWAR
CCSHAU Regional Research Station, Rohtak (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : ahlawatento@gmail.com)
(Received : 13 July 2021; Accepted : 15 September 2021)
SUMMARY
Field experiments were conducted during kharif season of 2019 and 2020 at Research farm of CCSHAU Regional Research Station, Rohtak. The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the performance of forage sorghum under different establishment methods and doses of fertilization. The soil of the experimental field was sandy loam in texture, neutral in reaction, low in organic carbon and available nitrogen, medium in available phosphorus and high in available potassium. The experiment was laid out in Split plot design with four establishment methods viz. S1: Happy seeder + full wheat residue, S2: Zero Tillage with 50 % wheat residue, S3: Conventional Tillage + sowing with drill and S4: Conventional Tillage + seed broadcasting (Rotavator) in main plot and three fertilizer doses viz. F1: 100 % RDF (75 kg N/ha + 15 kg P2O5/ha), F2: 125 % RDF and F3: 150% RDF replicated thrice. Overall results depicted that in the year 2019 among different establishment methods significantly higher green fodder yield was obtained with conventional tillage + sowing with seed drill sowing method as compared to Happy seeder + full wheat residue and Zero Tillage with 50 % wheat residue sowing method and at par with treatment Conventional tillage + seed broadcasting followed by rotavator sowing method. Similar trend in 2019 was observed in case of dry fodder yield. In the year 2020 sorghum sown with happy seeder + full wheat residue yielded 475.97 q / ha green fodder yield which was 7.51 % and 6.07 % higher than conventional tillage + seed broadcasting and zero tillage with 50 % residue (wheat stubbles) sowing method, respectively. Sorghum sown with happy seeder + full wheat residue yielded 131.73 q / ha dry fodder yield in 2020 which was 7.98 % , 6.89 % and 5.41 % higher than conventional tillage + seed broadcasting, zero tillage with 50 % residue (wheat stubbles) and conventional tillage + sowing with seed drill sowing method, respectively. In 2019 application of 150 % recommended dose of fertilizer in sorghum recorded significantly higher green fodder and dry fodder yield than 125 % RDF and RDF. In the year 2020 application of 150 % RDF being at par with 125 % RDF recorded significantly higher dry fodder and green fodder yield than RDF.
Key words:Conventional tillage, forage sorghum, happy seeder, RDF and zero tillage