Evaluation of suitable crop for limited irrigated condition under rabi cropping

Abstract

Climate change adversely affected agriculture production and become more serious concern for developing country like India water is one of the precious and costly input used in agriculture hence an experiment was conducted at Agriculture Research Station, Achalpur under Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, situated at 21° 18’ North latitude and 77° 30’ to 77° 35’ East longitudes with a subtropical climate. The topography of experimental plot was levelled and the soil was black in colour, fairly deep, well drained clayey in texture, low in available nitrogen and phosphorus, high in available potash. The experiment was designed in split plot design with three replications and three levels of irrigation as main plot treatments i.e. I1 – No Irrigation, I2 – One Irrigation (40-45 DAS) and I3 – Two Irrigation (20-25 and 60-65 DAS) with four cropping treatment as subplot treatment i.e. C1 – Wheat – Cv. Phule Samadhan, C2 – Safflower – Cv. SSF – 708, C3 – Sorghum – Phule Suchitra and C4 – Gram – Phule Vikram, respectively. Application of two irrigation (20-25 and 60-65 DAS) and chickpea crop recorded highest wheat equivalent grain yield 29.76 and 36.53 q/ha with highest benefit: cost ratio (2.98).