The human population is growing rapidly which increases pressure on livestock to meet the animal products (milk, meat, wool etc.) demand. For the higher productivity of livestock, it is essential to provide green fodder to the livestock. The poor quality green forages not only reduce milk productivity but also affect animal health. The green forage quality plays a key role in economical ruminant production. Forage quality depends mainly on its genetically trait, however, it can be improved by implying improved agronomic practices viz., timely/adequate tillage operation, optimum nutrient management, sowing at right time with adequate seed rate, intercropping system, timely water management, weed management and harvesting at right stage etc. The green biomass yield is significantly influenced by tillage operations. The right source and dose of nutrient is important for the production of quality fodder. Addition of nitrogen to soil increases the fodder yield as well as protein content. Delayed sowing generally increases the crude protein and fiber content but decreases the crude fat. Crop density is positively related to forage yield and crude fiber, however, crude protein is negatively associated with plant density. Introducing legumes intercrops in cereal fodder improves the fodder quality as well as quantity. Forage yield follows a decreasing trend by enhancing the water scarcity, however, optimum irrigation and good quality water improves the fodder quality. Delay in harvesting decreases forage quality. Therefore, proper agronomic practices should be followed for enhanced fodder production and better nutritional value.
A field experiment was conducted during the kharif season 2008 and 2009 to find out response of clusterbean to various growth regulators. The experiment was laid out under spit plot design where four varieties (RGC-936, RGC-1002, RGC-1003 AND RGC- 1017 are taken as main plot treatment and seven growth substance (control, seed treatment with thiourea 500 ppm, foliar application of thiourea 500 ppm, seed+foliar application of thiourea 500 ppm, seed treatment with TGA 100ppm, foliar application of TGA 100 ppm and seed+foliar application of TGA 100ppm) as sub plot treatment and with three replications. Application of seed + foliar application with thiourea 500ppm on yield attributes viz., pods plant-1, seeds pod-1 , weight of seeds pod-1, test weight, seed yield plant-1 showed significant increase i.e. 24.88g, 6.97g, 0.187g, 26.82g, 5.04g on pooled basis. The results revealed that the variety RGC-936 gave significantly higher number of pods per plant (24.85.00), seeds per pod (6.67), weight of seed per pod (0.179 g), test weight (26.09 g), and seed yield per plant (4.67 g). Seed+foliar application of thiourea 500ppm recorded significant improvement in yield and yield attributes on the pooled basis. The maximum net returns (Rs.2873/-) and B:C ratio (3.82) were recorded with the variety RGC-936.
The study was conducted to evaluate long-term effect of legume intensified maize based crop rotations and contrasting tillage practices and a experiment was laid out in split plot design with three tillage practices i.e. zero tillage (ZT), permanent bed (PB) and conventional tillage (CT) as main plot treatments and four legume intensified crop rotations (MWMbmaize-wheat-mungbean, MCS -maize-chickpea-Sesbania, MMuMb -maize-mustard-mungbean and MMS -maize-maizeSesbania) as sub-plot treatments. Adoption of CA based tillage practices (ZT/PB) significantly improved maize protein yield (MPY). ZT/PB gave 7.7-14.2% higher MPY(Maize protein yield and 7.4-13.0% higher MPYA (maize protein yield for adults) over CT. Similarly, the MPY and MPYA under legume intensified cereal based rotations were invariably higher in MCS and MWMb systems compared to MMuMb and MMS rotations.The total soil nitrogen (TSN) content increased by 15.4-17.4 and 20.32-20.91% with ZT and PB over CT in 0-15 and 15-30 cm soil depths, respectively. However, among the legume intensified rotations the maize planted under MCS and MWMb rotations registered 11.3-18.0% (0-15cm) and 8.4-11.0% (15-30cm) higher TSN over MMuMb and MMS rotation. Similarly, adoption of the CA practices (ZT/PB) resulted into significant improvement in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks compared to CT. ZT and PB among the tillage practices and MCS crop rotations among the sub-plot treatments registered higher Leaf area index (LAI) and net assimilation rate (NAR) compared to other management practices. Interaction effect of tillage practices and crop rotations were significant for MPY, MPYA, TSN and SOC stocks and all these parameters were reported maximum with ZT-MCS. Thus, our study suggests that CA based crop management with legume diversified maize based rotations (MCS and MWMb) can be advocated as sustainable intensification strategy in north-western India and other similar agro-ecologies of South Asia.
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