Response of rainfed crops to improved agronomic practices on farmer’s field of Chittoor and YSR Kadapa districts, Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Response of rainfed crops viz., groundnut, red gram and gingelly to improved agronomic practices were tested on farmer fields of Chittoor and YSR Kadapa districts during kharif 2014 and kharif 2015. Adaption of improved agronomic practices in groundnut such as use of drought tolerant variety Dharani, maintaining optimum plant population by adapting proper seed rate @ 150 kgha-1 (30 cm x 10 cm), seed treatment with recommended chemicals, recommended dose of fertilizer i.e., NPK @ 20:40: 50 kgha-1 at the time of sowing and top dressing of 500kg gypsum per ha at the time of flowering, application ZnSO4 @ 25 kgha-1and Borax @10 kg ha-1 at the time of sowing, pre emergence application of herbicide Pendimethalin @ 1 Kg a.i ha-1 with three rows of border crop of Jowar, In red gram improved wilt tolerant variety TRG-59, Thinning and application of 20-50 N,P kgha-1and suitable and timely plant protection measures. In gingelly improved variety swethatil, thinning and plant protection measures would effectively reduce the technology gap and resulted in enhanced productivity of rainfed crops in both the districts of Andhra Pradesh.