Productivity of Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czernj and Cosson] as influenced by tillage and irrigation frequency

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2014-15 at Agricultural Research Farm, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (India) to study the effect of tillage and irrigation frequency on productivity of Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czernj and Cosson]. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three replications. The main plot treatment consisted three tillage practices viz. Zero tillage, Reduced tillage (2 harrowing + 1 planking), Conventional tillage (1 deep ploughing with disc + 2 harrowing + 1 planking), whereas four levels of irrigations i.e.No irrigation, One irrigation (35 DAS), Two irrigations (35 DAS + 60 DAS), Three irrigations (35 DAS + 60 DAS + 90 DAS) were allocated to sub-plots. All the yield attributing characters were positively influenced by increasing the intensity of tillage operations and the frequency of irrigation. In the present investigation, yield attributing characters viz. siliqua on main shoot, siliquaeplant-1, length of siliqua, seeds siliqua-1, 1000-seed weight and seed yield were are markedly higher with conventional tillage and three irrigations at 35 DAS, 60 DAS and 90 DAS.Conventional tillage produced 30.6% and reduced tillage recorded 10.2% higher seed yield than and zero tillage. Application of one irrigation, two irrigations and three irrigations recorded 7.8, 18.6% and 24.2% higher yield as compared to the control.