Yield Performance of Different Contingent Crops under Delayed Sowings in Changed Climate in Rainfed Agriculture

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2018 at Dryland Agriculture Project, All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Dryland Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka. The experiment comprised of two factors laid out in Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (FRCBD) with three replications. Treatments consist of three sowing windows viz., August 2^nd fortnight, September 1^st fortnight and September 2^nd fortnight and five crops viz., foxtail millet, finger millet, field bean, french bean and quinoa. Delayed dates of sowing caused drop in growth parameters which may be due to unfavorable weather conditions to the plants as well as high temperature which might have caused in lower rate of photosynthesis and reduced accumulation of food materials. Among the contingent crops and delayed sowings in kharif season under dryland condition, french bean showed better performance during August 2^nd fortnight, September 1^st fortnight and September 2^nd fortnight realizing higher bean yield (2394, 1822 and 1150 kg ha⁻¹, respectively) and finger millet equivalent yield compared to field bean, finger millet, foxtail millet and quinoa.