Performance of drought tolerant groundnut variety in chittoor district of andhra pradesh

The western mandals of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh are prone to frequent drought marked by deficit and late onset of rainfall and also prolonged dry spells impacting productivity of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). To build resilience into the system and to mitigate impact of drought on productivity, 40 demonstrations were conducted using drought tolerant groundnut variety Dharani under National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) by RASS - KVK, Chittoor during 2015–18. The results revealed that about 16per cent higher pod yield was recorded with Dharani variety (1796 kg/ha) compared to the Kadiri-6 (1551kg/ha). Dharani recorded higher number of pods per plant (17.5) and uniform maturity of pods than Kadiri-6 (14.8). The average net returns (Rs.34890/-ha) and BC ratio (1.76) were also higher in case of Dharani when compared to Kadiri-6 (Rs.25226/-ha and 1.57). Efforts are on by the KVK to scale out this success story to other blocks of the district with similar climatic vulnerability through participatory seed production by farmers and trying to forge converge with the seed chain of the district.