LR-3672 [1-8]
Legume Research, Print ISSN:0250-5371 / Online ISSN:0976-0571
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE
www.arccjournals.com/www.legumeresearch.in
Impact of improved production technologies on chickpea yields, economics and energy use in rainfed Vertisols S.L. Patil* and M.N. Ramesha ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Ballari-583 104, Karnataka, India. Received: 18-12-2015 Accepted: 13-05-2017
DOI: 10.18805/LR-3672
ABSTRACT A field study was conducted during rabi season of 2013–14 in ten farmers’ fields of Joladarasi, K. Veerapur and Chellagurki villages of Bellary district in Karnataka, India to evaluate the improved chickpea variety JG11 with micronutrients application on yield, economics and energy flow in Vertisols. Adopting JG11 chickpea variety and application of micronutrient mixture at 5 kg ha-1 during winter season increased the grain and straw yields by 26% and 31%, respectively over A1variety cultivated by farmers without application of micronutrients. Application of micronutrients alone produced 9% higher yields in JG11 and A1. Greater gross and net returns with higher B:C ratio was observed with cultivation of JG11chickpea variety and application of micronutrients. Energy flow results revealed that smaller input energy through micronutrients application and cultivation of JG11variety produced higher total output energy and net energy benefit (NEB). The NEB per ha varied from 15966 MJ in control plots to as high as 22546 MJ in micronutrients applied plots with JG11 cultivation. Greater average energy use efficiency (EUE) of 3.57, energy productivity (EP) of 0.106 and lesser specific energy (SE) of 9.62 were observed with JG11 cultivation and applied with micronutrients compared to the control plots. Correlation studies indicated the positive and significant correlation of grain yield with net returns, B:C ratio, NEB, EUE and EP. In conclusion higher chickpea yields, profit and energy gains can be achieved by cultivating JG11 variety with micronutrients application at 5 kg ha-1 in the Vertisols of Bellary region during winter season. Key words: Chickpea, Economics, Energy, Micronutrients, Vertisols, Winter season INTRODUCTION Area under chickpea cultivation in world has increased to 13.5 Mha but production remained at 13.1 Mt in 2013 (FAOSTAT, 2015). India is the main chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) producing and consuming country in the world, with a chickpea production of 9.53 Mt from 10.2 Mha of land area (about 70%) in 2013-14 (Gowda, et al., 2015; DoACFW, 2015; Prasad et al., 2014). Chickpeas is the main exported pulse from India which accounts for 97.2% and 85.6% of total pulses exported during 2013-14 and 201415, respectively (DoACFW, 2015). Chickpea contains 2022% protein and is a good source of micro and macronutrients for bio-fortification of food to fight global malnutrition problem (Thavarajah and Thavarajah, 2012; Miller and Welch. 2013; Gowda, et al., 2015; Singh et al., 2015). In south India chickpea is cultivated under receding soil moisture during winter season in the Vertisols with low productivity due to cultivation of traditional variety (Patil et al., 2014, 2015 and 2016). Chickpea is mainly cultivated on low fertile and non-irrigated soils, thus water stress and mineral nutrient deficiencies often affect both productivity and yield stability in many chickpea-growing regions of the world (Ali et al., *Corresponding author’s e-mail:
[email protected]
2000; Ahlawat et al., 2007). In general, each tonne of chickpea grain removes 121.9 kg of primary nutrients (Prasad et al., 2002), 34.7 kg of secondary nutrients and ~1000 g of four micronutrients, i.e. 38 g Zn, 868 g Fe, 70 g Mn and 11.3 g Cu (Aulakh et al., 1985). Estimated B uptake, based on mean concentration, is ~35 g (Ahlawat et al., 2007). The magnitude of yield losses in chickpea due to nutrient deficiency varies among the nutrients with N, P, Fe, B and S may cause yield losses up to 10%, 29–45%, 22–90%, 100% and 16–30%, respectively, depending on soil fertility, climate and plant factors (Ali et al., 2002). Micronutrients contribute substantially to achieving higher production through their effects on the plant itself, their role in the symbiotic nitrogenfixing process, where micronutrient deficiencies can limit nitrogen fixation by legume-Rhizobium symbiosis, and their influence on effective uptake of the principal and secondary nutrients. Of late, micronutrient deficiency has become a limiting factor for crop productivity in many agricultural lands worldwide (Khoshgoftarmanesh et al., 2010). There are few studies which analyzed the application of micronutrients to chickpea (Valenciano et al., 2011). Since the Green Revolution, higher crop production per unit area has resulted in greater depletion of soil phyto available
2
LEGUME RESEARCH An International Journal
micronutrients while less attention has been paid to micronutrients fertilization. In Vertisols of south India the deficiency of micronutrients especially zinc, iron, manganese and boron are often limit the chickpea productivity due to lesser application of farmyard manure. Keeping in view these situations, demonstrations were conducted to evaluate improved chickpea variety (JG11-drought and heat tolerant) with micronutrients application against farmers practice in terms of yield, economics and energy flow in the Vertisols during winter season under rainfed situations. MATERIALS AND METHODS A study was conducted during rabi (winter) season of 2013–14 in ten farmers’ fields of Joladarasi, K. Veerapur and Chellagurki villages of Bellary district in Karnataka, India to evaluate the performance of improved production technology under rainfed situations. Medium tillage was done during second fortnight of February 2013 in all the ten selected farmers’ fields. Twice land was harrowed during kharif (rainy) season prior to sowing (June to September). Improved chickpea production demonstrations were conducted on Vertisols that were derived from granite, gneiss and schist with low (
