Influence of NPK fertilizer doses on growth, yield and economics of improved finger millet genotypes under red sandy loam soils of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh during kharif, 2019 to evaluate the fertilizer use efficiency of improved finger millet cultivars. Experiment was conducted in split-plot design with NPK fertilizer doses as main plot treatments and finger millet cultivars as sub plot treatments. Experimental results indicated that 125% recommended dose of fertilizer significantly increased plant height, productive tillers, earhead length, number of fingers per earhead, grain yield and straw yield apart from recording higher net returns and B:C. Among four improved cultivars, VR 1101 and WN 559 have outperformed in terms of yield and economics than other cultivars and national check varieties.