CROP MANAGEMENT

  • In gardenlands, sequential cropping of rice (Aug-Dec.), groundnut (Jan.-April) and pearl millet (May-July) was found efficient and economical
  • Growing rice – sesame – pearl millet – turmeric – cotton in a two year sequence has given the maximum profit
  • Onion was found to be the best intercrop in turmeric and tobacco with highest monetary returns
  • Optimum time of sowing groundnut is first and second week of January for summer crop and first week of July for kharif crop
  • Foliar spray of 1 per cent KCl at 30, 60 and 90 days after planting along with recommended levels of fertilizers was found to be effective in mitigating the moisture stress during tillering and growth phases and minimize yield loss in sugarcane
  • Spraying salicylic acid 150 ppm at flowering and fruit set stage was found to be the best by recording highest yields in tomato.
  • Spraying nutrient mixture (Cu, Zn, B, Mg and Fe each 0.5%) at pre shooting and post shooting (Urea 4%, KCl 1% and DAP 1%) increased the bunch weight of banana.

Findings in seed science and technology

  • The A line (234 A) of sunflower hybrid can be sprayed either with borax (0.5%) or TIBA (50 ppm) or salicylic acid (100 ppm) at pre flowering stage to increase seed yield by 10 per cent.
  • ZnSO4 applied @ 50 kg/ha as basal dressing followed by two sprays of 0.5% ZnSO4 given at 45th and 52nd day after sowing to the R line (6D-1) of sunflower hybrid resulted in 17.5 per cent increase in pollen production and 23 per cent increase in pollen viability.
  • Sunflower seeds dried to 9 per cent moisture content and treated with Captan @ 2 g/kg of seed maintained the viability (70%) upto nine months.
  • Seeds of paddy dried to 9 per cent moisture content, treated with halogen mixture @ 3 g/kg of seed and packed in 30 gauge thick polylined gunny bag maintained high viability of more than 80% upto 15 months.
  • Dormancy of sarpagandha seeds can be overcome by soaking in 100 ppm gibberllic acid for 5 hrs.