No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The present study was conducted for five rainy seasons (kharif) of 2005 to 2009 at a fixed site at the farm of AICRP for Dryland Agriculture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India to study the effect of organic, inorganic and biofertilizer on seed yield of castor in Aridisols. The experiment consisted of nine treatments, each replicated thrice in a randomized block design. The treatments tried had significant effect on seed yield of castor over control except the treatment of application of 20 kg N/ha during all the five seasons. Conjunctive use of organic and biofertilizer with inorganic fertilizer application (20 kg N/ha) gave promising results when compared with 40 kg N/ha alone. This indicates the additive response to biofertilizers and organics (4 t FYM/ha). Increase in application of N from N 40 to N 60 did not affect the seed yield of castor significantly when compared with 40 kg N/ha at the same level of phosphorus application. The microbial count of Azotobacter and PSB was the highest at 30 and 60 days after sowing (DAS), respectively irrespective of treatments. Application of N 60 P 20 had recorded the highest benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.58 closely followed by N 40 P 20 (1.54).

A field experiment with conservation agricultural practices in pearl millet was conducted at Hisar in 2005-09 with a set of five tillage treatments. Rainfall for the cropping season showed significant role in production and no tillage treatment resulted in lowest grain yields in all the years. Conventional tillage and low tillage treatments yielded at par proving that a preparatory tillage could be saved without compromising the yield. Lowest energy output/input ratio was observed for "No tillage" treatment obviously due to lowest grain yield. Highest ratio was for low tillage followed by two intercultures which was also accompanied by highest B:C values. Estimation of net energy additions over "no tillage" treatment revealed that for every additional one unit energy input in low tillage plus two interculture gave additionally highest output of 39.6 MJ closely followed by low tillage + one interculture + Atrazine spray. Energy input was around 7000MJ/ha for producing rainfed pearl millet and values were close to literature values. Two intercultural operations seemed to be necessary for optimum harvests through moisture conservation as well as weed management. Results indicated that 'no tillage or low tillage' concept needs a relook for rainfed areas as weed control is a vital aspect.