Nutrient uptake of different contingent crops under delayed sowings in changed climate in rainfed agriculture

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2018 at Dryland Agriculture Project, All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Dryland Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka. The experiment comprised of two factors laid out in Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (FRCBD) with three replications. Treatments consist of three sowing windows viz., August 2nd fortnight, September 1st fortnight and September 2nd fortnight and five crops viz foxtail millet, finger millet, field bean, french bean and quiona. Delayed dates of sowing caused drop in growth parameters which may be due to unfavorable weather conditions to the plants as well as high temperature which might have caused in lower rate of photosynthesis and lower uptake of nutrients led to reduced accumulation of food materials. Among the contingent crops and delayed sowings in kharif season under dryland condition, August 2nd fortnight sowing recorded significantly higher availability of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium by crops and it was decreasing with delayed sowing of contingent crops. Field bean and french bean were improved the availability of nutrients in the soil after the harvest of crops than remaining crops.