Effect of Soil Characters on the Yield of Rainfed Crops in a Watershed near Nagpur

Field experiments were conducted in a watershed near Nagpur on eight well defined and varying soil units for interpretation and quantification of the impact of soil characteristics on productivity of cotton, pigeonpea, sorghum, groundnut and soybean grown under rainfed conditions. The derived soil-cum climatic parameters viz., plant available water capacity (PAWC), soil effective rainfall and the length of growing period (LGP) being directly associated with soil depth and clay content, showed significant and positive r values in all the five crops. Further, lime content also showed significant contribution towards the yield of pigeonpea and groundnut. Simple regression equations of crop yields with PA we, effective rainfall and LGP showed linear relationship in case of cotton, pigeonpea and sorghum. Whereas in groundnut the quadratic relationships were found for PAWC and effective rainfall with pod yield. Soybean showed quadratic relation with PAWC and linear with effective rainfall. The final multivariate equation between eight soil characteristics and yield of individual crops are presented.