Correlation analysis of yield with yield attributing characters and soil properties of Cajanus cajan (Arhar) in silvi-horti-agri system

Pulses are the major source of protein and is widely used to fulfill protein requirement of the growing population. Perennial pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] is a predominant crop grown in kharif season, also known as Red gram, Arhar or Tur. The present study aimed to correlate yield of C. cajan with growth and soil properties under agroforestry system in Madhya Pradesh.

An experiment was conducted to assess the yield of Cajanus cajan under agroforestry system at Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur during the year 2020–2021. In this study Cajanus cajan (Arhar) intercropped with Pterocarpus marsupium (Bijasal) and Psidium guajava (guava) under silvi-horti-agri system. During study period, growth parameters such as height, no. of pods and no. of branches of C. cajan were recorded and soil properties such as Soil pH, EC, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium were also estimated before sowing and at the time of harvesting of agriculture crop.

Study revealed that yield has highly significant positive correlation with an average plant height (0.4735), no. of pods/plant (0.2558) and no. of branches/plant (0.3765), another result shows that yield has highly significant correlation with organic carbon % (0.7966), nitrogen content of soil (0.3049), Potassium (0.3036), Phosphorus (0.6244) and has negative correlation with pH of soil (−0.9336) and EC (−0.8740) at 5% level of significance. Similarly, correlation of yield with soil parameters at the time of harvesting and the results revealed that the yield has positive correlation with organic carbon % (0.5277), nitrogen content of soil (0.1102), Potassium (0.2324), Phosphorus (0.7118) and has negative correlation with pH of soil (−0.4861) and EC (−0.3853) at 5% level of significance.