Growth Response and Yield of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) to Various Amendments in Surface Crusting Alfisol under Different Land Configuration

In some of Alfisol areas of Tamil Nadu, surface crusting seems to be a major constraint in the districts namely Pudukkottai, Trichy, Thanjavur, Cuddalore and Sivagangai where Alfisols accounts for 4,51,584 ha (4.49% TGA) in which groundnut is cultivated as a major crop. However, amid the above constraint, the area under groundnut is getting declined.

With an aim to overcome the above constraint, a field experiment was conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Kudumiyanmalai during 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 in surface crusting Alfisol to investigate the response of Groundnut to various amendments under different land configuration. The experiment was laid out in Split plot design.

The results of the experiment revealed that among the main plot treatments, the land configuration of raised bed (M₁) has influenced the growth attributes such as plant height, LAI, dry matter production, root length, root spread besides yield during 20162017 and 2017–2018 and this was closely followed by ridges and furrow system. Under sub plot treatments, there was remarkable increase in all the growth parameters and yield at Bio-char @ 5 t ha^-1 (S₁) during 2016–2017 and 2017–2018. There was no significant effect between main and sub plots.