Impact of Frontline Demonstration Technologies on Groundnut Yield in Erode District

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oilseed crop cultivated over 20,000 ha in Erode District of Tamil Nadu. The yield was drastically reduced in the groundnut cultivable area due to the compound problems of diseases and micro nutrient deficiencies. Attempts were made by ICAR-KVK, MYRADA to manage the diseases and micronutrient deficiencies in ground nut by conducting frontline demonstrations on integrated disease and micronutrient management during 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17. The technologies comprised of seed treatment with Pseudomonas flourescens @ 10 g kg⁻¹ seed, foliar application of 10% calotropis leaf extract, need based mancozeb spray @ 1 kg ha⁻¹ and groundnut rich @ 5 kg ha⁻¹. Adoption of integrated disease management practices reduces the disease incidence by 6.15% which was significantly superior to the conventional method of disease management practices as it was recorded as 16.74%. The results revealed that, foliar application of groundnut rich micronutrients resulted in increase in pod filling percent and 33.48 filled pods recorded in demonstrated plots whereas 25.75 pods recorded in the control plots. The farmers harvested an average yield of 25.82 q ha⁻¹ with an yield advantage of 18.53% over the farmers’ practices. The average extension gap, technology gap and technology index were 4.04 q ha⁻¹, 3.88 q ha⁻¹ and 13.06%, respectively. The integrated crop management practices gave the higher benefit cost ratio of 2.16 compared to the conventional methods. The results indicated that, the adoption of integrated disease and nutrient management techniques reduces the disease incidence and increases the productivity at farmers’ field level.