Effect of land configurations on growth and yield of Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) varieties in kharif season

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the kharif season of 2024 to evaluate the effect of three land configurations (flat bed, ridges and furrow, and broad bed furrow) and three finger millet varieties (Phule Nachani, Phule Kasari, and Dapoli-1) on the growth, yield, and economics of finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn).The results revealed that the broad bed furrow (BBF) system consistently outperformed other land configurations, producing significantly superior growth parameters including plant height (115.3 cm), number of tillers (2.76 plant⁻¹), functional leaves (32.97 plant⁻¹), leaf area (9.53 dm²), and dry matter accumulation (21.93 g plant⁻¹). Similarly, the variety Dapoli-1 demonstrated the best performance among the genotypes for most growth and yield attributes. These improvements translated into significantly higher yield components under BBF, including the number of earheads (2.32 plant⁻¹), fingers earhead-1 (8.64), finger length (8.77 cm), and grain weight earhead-1 (17.28 g). Consequently, the highest grain yield (2805 kg ha⁻¹) and straw yield (7402 kg ha⁻¹) were recorded with the BBF system. The variety Dapoli-1 also yielded the highest grain (2704 kg ha⁻¹). Economically, the combination of BBF and Dapoli-1 proved most profitable, yielding the highest net monetary returns (₹ 86,802 ha⁻¹) and benefit-cost ratio (2.71). The interaction between land configuration and varieties was found to be non-significant for all parameters. It is concluded that adopting the broad bed furrow method for cultivating the Dapoli-1 variety is a highly effective strategy for maximizing productivity and profitability in finger millet production under the conditions of this study.