Journal of Food Legumes

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) is a potential Rabi pulse of rice fallows of New Alluvial Zone of West Bengal. Terminal drought stress is the major problem in the crop grown by using residual soil moisture. Hence, identification of suitable high yielding short duration lentil variety is desirable. Aiming at this, a field experiment was carried out during 2015-16 and 2016-17 to study the performance of 15 lentil genotypes and comparing them with popularly grown variety of the region. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design at district seed farm, AB block, Kalyani, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India during Rabi season. Pooled values of two years data indicated that the genotype L 1112-18 initiated flowering earlier (41.5 DAS) as well as first to achieve 50% flowering (48 DAS) whereas, L 1112-10 achieved 100% flowering (57 DAS) and matured earlier (91 DAS) among the genotype tested. The genotype L 1112-6 produced maximum yield (1619 kg ha-1) by attributing higher number of primary branches per plant (4), pods per plant (104.7), 100 seed weight (2.8 g). Based on the yield and earliness, L 1112-8 and L 1112-20 can be used in breeding programme in rice-fallow areas of West Bengal.