Agronomic management of lentil under relay cropping system

A field experiment was conducted at District Seed Farm, Kalyani, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (22.97°N, 88.43°E, 9.75m MSL), Nadia, West Bengal, India during rabi season of 2014–16 to identify the optimum seed rate and variety for relay cropping with transplanted long duration kharif rice under changing onset of monsoon. The experiment was laid down in split plot design with three replications comprising of three lentil varieties (PL6, WBL 77 and NDL 1) in main plot and four seed rates (50, 60, 70 and 80 kg ha⁻¹) in sub-plot. The varieties and seed rates significantly affected the plant population, pods per plant, biological and seed yield. The lentil variety PL 6 recorded highest seed yield (1446.8 kg ha⁻¹) with the seed rate of 60 kg ha⁻¹ followed by WBL 77 and NDL 1. Among the varieties PL6 recorded highest test weight (27.58 g) followed by NDL 1 (18.36 g) and WBL 77 (16.20 g). The variety PL 6 exhibited highest seed yield which was mainly attributed by the highest test weight of seeds along with moderate plant population m⁻² and number of pods plant⁻¹.