Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges & Opportunities
during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
7.51 lakh hectare area and 11.97 lakh tonnes production with a productivity of 1592 kg/ha during
2019 (FAOSTAT, 2019). Gujarat is the largest castor growing state of India. Where, it’s grown
over an area of 5.22 lakh hectare with the annual production of 9.44 lakh tonnes with average
productivity of about 1809 kg/ha and its shares about 69.46% of the total area and 78.90% of the
total castor production. Cultivation of castor on conserved soil moisture in Ghed area of Gujarat
is increased day by day. While, castor is drought tolerant plant and can be grown on wide
climatic regimes and is an ideal crop for arid and semi-arid zones with humid climate (Falasca et
al., 2012), proper planting geometry (Thanki et al., 2020) and the availability of balanced
nutrients is very necessary for high yield. Therefore, it is prime need to find out appropriate dose
of nitrogen and phosphorus for castor grown under conserved moisture in Ghed area of Gujarat.
Hence, an experiment was planned to study the effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on castor yield
under conserved soil moisture in Ghed area.
Methodology
A field experiment was conducted during the Semi-rabi season of 2015 to 2019 at Dry Farming
Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Ratia (Porbandar). The soil of experimental
field was medium black clayey having pH 8.26, EC 0.41 dS m -1 and organic carbon 0.52 %. The
soil was medium in available nitrogen (255 kg/ha), medium in available phosphorus (43.27
kg/ha) and high in available potash (690.0 kg/ha). The experiment was laid out in a factorial
randomized block design with 12 treatments. 4 levels of nitrogen (0, 20, 40 and 60 kg/ha) and 3
levels of phosphorus (0, 20 and 40 kg/ha) with 3 replications. The nitrogen was applied in two
splits viz., 50 % as basal through ammonium sulphate and 50 % as top dressing at 45-50 DAS
through urea by drilling in soil up to 10 cm depth, while phosphorus was applied as basal
through single super phosphate as per treatments. The Gross and net plot size was 5.4 m X 4.5 m
and 3.6 m X 2.7 m, respectively. Castor GCH-7 was sown at the distance of 90 cm X 45 cm on
27 August 2015, 24 October 2016, 27 October 2017, 19 September 2018 and 9 November 2019
under conserved soil moisture. The total rainfall received during the crop season (June to
November) was 180, 306, 270, 149 and 545 mm in 6, 12, 14, 8 and 18 rainy days in the year of
2015 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. Data on growth, yield performance and economic
of castor was pooled over 5 years.
Results
On the basis of five years pooled mean, seed and stalk yield of castor were significantly
influenced due to different levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, while plant height was found nonsignificant
(Table). Significantly highest seed yield and stalk yield of castor were recorded with
application of 60 kg N/ha as compared to control, 20 and 40 kg N/ha. Among phosphorus levels,
663 | Page Resource conservation and rainfed agriculture