1Department of Agronomy, C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur-208 002, (Uttar Pradesh), India; Email: aktripathiak@gmail.com
Department of Soil Conservation and Water Management, C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, 208 002, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Email of corresponding author: rp.singhcsa@gmail.com
Online published on 13 October, 2015.
A field experiment was conducted during two consecutive kharif seasons of 2007–08 and 2008–09 at Kanpur in an alluvial soil to assess the effect of moisture conservation and nutrient management practices on growth, yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of sorghum in rainfed condition of Uttar Pradesh. Four moisture conservation practices, viz. control, weeding and hoeing, ridge and furrow, and organic residue mulch @ 4 t ha−1 and two fertility levels, viz. N40 + P20 + K20 and N80 + P40 + K40 kg ha−1 were assigned in factorial randomized block design with three replications. Application of N80 + P40 + K40 kg ha−1 was superior in respect to plant height, plant girth, panicle length and 1000-grain weight and grain and stover yield of sorghum during both the years of study. It also improved water use efficiency (4.35 kg seed ha−1 mm−1) and net return (‘ 4341 ha−1). Among the moisture conservation practices, application of organic residue mulch @ 4 t ha−1 in between rows after 25 days of sowing was superior to rest of the treatments in terms of growth, yield attributes and yield. This treatment also gave the highest net return and increased WUE.
Net return, Nutrient management, Organic residue mulch, Rainfed, Soil moisture, Sorghum, Water use efficiency
