Growth and yield of summer groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) as influenced by foliar application of water soluble fertilizer

The field experiment was undertaken at the District Seed Farm, Kalyani at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal during summer season of 2012 and 2013 to study the growth and yield of summer groundnut as influenced by application of water soluble foliar grade fertilizer. Application of liquid grade fertilizerat early growth stage up to 45 DAE did not influence the plant height and dry matter production significantly, but towards maturity varied significantly (P ? 0.05). Crop growth rate was faster at early part of the crop age and gradually slows at later part towards maturity. Foliar application of water soluble fertilizer along with RDF 85% had the significant (P ? 0.05) influence to increase the number of pods per plant, but shelling percentage and hundred kernel weight did not vary significantly. Liquid grade fertilizer either starter dose or booster dose or in both had the positive response to increased the groundnut pod yield up to 4-6 % over RDF only. The crop was equally responsive in increasing the pod yield, when RDF was reduced by 15% along with foliar application of liquid grade fertilizer. The foliar application of water soluble fertilizer was not the substitute to soil applied inorganic fertilizer. Instead, foliar supplementation of nutrients showed positive response to increase the pod yield, in addition to the fertilizers added to soil. Gross return decreased with reduction in amount of RDF applied for the crop, but gross return increased, when water soluble foliar grade inorganic fertilizer was supplemented with RDF. The maximum gross return of `150399 was obtained. The results obtained from correlation analysis carried out to examine the linear relationship between pod yields with different plant characters. Data obtained in case of dry matter of the plant was 0.995 and 0.997 in the respective years at 1% level of significance. Thus, it was concluded that dry matter content of plant is solely responsible over the yield increase in groundnut and foliar application of inorganic fertilizers in addition to that in soil has helped in better adsorption of nutrients in adequate amount by the crop

Utilization of wetland ecosystem through fish-crop diversification for enhanced productivity and economic stability for fish-farm community of Indian sub-continent

This paper deals with a number of case studies that were undertaken during the last 8- 10 years in utilizing divergent æTalÆ wetland ecosystems (deep, semi-deep, temporary in a range of agro-ecological zones like NAZ, OAZ and Coastal Zone of the region) for the development of integrated management programmes using a range of approaches. These included (i) system approach (excavation & renovation, methodological approach), (ii) management (fish-crop management, inter & post-harvest care & processing, marketing), (iii) integrated natural resource management utilizing organic as well inorganic sources, and (iv) low-cost fish-feeds, based on fish-crop diversification. This paper also deals with some endangered indigenous fish species. The unique approach of watershed plans (bherri system), which were formulated for upright production systems, was economically successful. Economic indicators reveal there were comparative advantages of mixed farming systems compared to monoculture, exhibiting less than 2.5 fold gains even for resource poor fish farming families.Fishery management, Resource management

Evaluation of potential rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes with different levels of N under rainfed shallow lowland situation

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the yield of potential rice genotypes during kharif season, 2012 and 2013 at Rice Research Station, Bankura, West Bengal, India on sandy loam soil of slightly acidic in reaction (pH: 5.7). This experiment was conducted in split-plot design with three replications. The results indicated that 105 kg N ha-1, the yield attributes recorded maximum number of panicles m-2 (307.9), panicle length (25.3cm), panicle weight (2.32g), number of filled grains per panicle (117.8), 1000-grains weight (24.5g) and finally recorded highest grain yield (4.80 t ha-1) than lower fertilities. While, 70 kg N ha-1 was remained closed to 105 kg N ha-1 in number of panicles m-2, panicle weight and number of filled grains per panicle. Among the potential rice varieties ‘Sampriti’ (IET 21987) recorded the highest grain yield (4.66 t ha-1) under rainfed shallow lowland situation of red and laterite zone of West Bengal. The highest grain yield (4.80 t ha-1) was obtained at 105 kg N ha-1and it was statistically at par with 70 kg N ha-1 (4.62 t ha-1). Therefore, the increased in grain yield of rice by the varieties due to overall respective performance in growth and appreciable improvement in the yield attributing characters