Impact of Front Line Demonstrations on Mustard Crop in Sirsa District of Haryana

Krishi Vigyan Kendra conducts cluster demonstrations every year as per target assignedby ICAR. The study evaluates impact of 300 demonstrations on mustard crop in 120hectare area conducted by KVK Sirsa since 2015-16 to 2017-18 in different villages of thedistrict. The extension gaps in technologies were identified through farmers meetings andgroup discussions with the farmers. The findings indicated significant increase in the averageyield of demonstrated plot (15.13%) over the farmer’s practice plot of mustard crop. Averageyield of demonstration plots was recorded higher by 18.18 per cent, 14.09 per cent and13.13 per cent in years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, respectively. The extension gapwas 4.0 q/ha, 3.10 q/ha and 2.89 q/ha while technology gap was 2.0 q/ha, 2.90 q/ha and2.11 q/ha during consecutive years respectively. During these three years, yield increase indemonstration plots expressed as additional income over check plots accounted for Rs.7670/ha, Rs. 12350/ha and Rs. 11590/ha respectively during various years.

Weather based forecast models for diseases in mustard crop

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Managing impact of climatic vagaries on the productivity of wheat and mustard in India

Wheat and mustard crop is highly vulnerable, particularly in the semi-arid and arid regions of India. The climate is warming through the processes such as CO2 and changed pattern of temperature and precipitation resulting in heat and drought stresses, respectively. The effect of increasing temperature during grain filling stage of wheat causes substantial reduction in grain yield. The effect of low temperature (frost) during podding and seed development stage in mustard causes freezing injury in seeds and sizable reduction in seed yield. In this review paper response of wheat and mustard crop to weather extremes and management practices such as time of sowing, selection of resistance cultivars, mulching, seed priming, foliar spray of salts, use of extra irrigation water, foliar spray of micronutrients, sprinkler, wind barrier etc. to mitigate the temperature and moisture stress effect on the productivity of wheat and mustard crop have been discussed. Above ground dry weight of wheat and its rate decreased with increasing water stress at each stage. The averaged values of damage threshold temperatures compiled from the literature were 31 °C for flowering and 35 °C for grain filling of wheat. Changes in average daily maximum temperature during flowering and grain filling had a negative effect on grain yield of 518 kg/ha and 1140 kg/ha, respectively for every 1 degree increase in average maximum temperature in South Australia. Temperature rise would be most harmful for the crop in eastern region, followed by central and northern India, where winter season temperature is comparatively higher than northern region. Rainfed mustard was less vulnerable to temperature rise in northern India as compared to other two central and eastern India. Rise in atmospheric temperature reduced leaf area index, grain number as well as weight of grains which was in turn reflected in yield of mustard crop. Seed yield reduction occurred by low water availability during stem elongation, flowering and pod development in mustard. Priming with moringa water extract and ascorbate substantially improved the tissue water status, membrane stability, gas exchange, water productivity of the plant. Late sown wheat crop faces high temperature stress during ripening phase. Delayed sowing reduces the tillering period and hot weather during critical period of grain filling lead to forced maturity thereby reduces the grain yield. Application of mulches in wheat produced higher grain yield over without much wheat. Organic mulches provided better soil water status and improved plant canopy in terms of biomass, root growth, leaf area index and grain yield as compared to inorganic mulch. The foliar spray of KNO3 (0.5%) at 50 per cent flowering stage, 1.0 per cent KNO3 during anthesis stage, 2.5 mM of arginine, spray of zinc, extra irrigation water during grain filling stage increased the productivity of wheat under high temperature stress. Light irrigation in mustard crop one day before frost occurrence protects from frost damage by improving heat transfer and heat capacity. Plastic mulch raises the surface temperature of the soil nearly 10 °C over bare soil. Smoke particles are usually less than 1 µm in size, reflect visible radiation but trap the long wave radiation and so are effective in preventing rapid cooling of surface near ground. Mixing air and liquid materials in the right proportion to create many small bubbles is the secret to generate foam with low thermal conductivity. Organic mulches (straw and saw dust) provided better soil water status over ash mulch.

Influence of Bio-fertilizer and Organic Seed Treatment on Growth and Yield Attributing Traits of Mustard (Brassica nigra L.) Variety (Pusa -21)

The Field experiment was conducted in a Randomized block Design (RBD) with three replications during Rabi, 2020-2021 at Naini Agricultural Institute, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj. The genetically pure seeds of Mustard variety Pusa-21 were used for the study. The mustard seeds primed with botanicals and chemicals( Vermiwash, Panchagavya, Azatobactor, NaCl , KNO3, Neem leaf, Parthenium leaf and FYM) were subjected to study in field experiment of growth and yield parameters were recorded. Objectives of the topic are to evaluate the Influence of bio fertilizer and organic seed treatment on growth, yield and yield attributing traits of mustard crop and to find out the suitable pre-sowing seed treatment for mustard crop. Analysis of variance revealed significant mean sum of squares due to seed priming treatments. The highest germination percent (88.89),plant height (132.53 cm), number of branches(12.60 per plant), yield attributing parameters in mustard as number of silique per plant (292.87), number of seeds per silique (18.73), seed yield per plant (17.73 gm/plant), seed yield per plot (214.33 gm/ plot), biological yield per plot (443.15/ plot), seed yield per hectare (2143.33 kg/ ha), biological yield per hectare (5140 kg/ ha) and harvest index (41.69) showing better result when treated with treatment vermiwash 5 % for 12 hours. Remaining treatments i.e, treatment with panchgavya 5 % & 3 %, azotobactor 3 % & 2 %, NaCl 0.5 % & 0.1 %, KNO3 0.5 % & 0.1 %, neem leaf extract, parthenium leaf extract for and fym 2 % for 12 hours recorded the second most effective treatments and observed significantly superior. It concluded that T8 (vermiwash 5% solution) found superior in all the growth and yield parameters.

Incidence, yield losses and symptomatology of sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) incited by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

SSR hamper successful cultivation and causes significant yield losses globally including India. The SSR disease incidence ranged from 3.59 to 18.50 per cent in mustard growing areas of Rajasthan and Bharatpur district having the highest (18.50%) disease incidence. However, the Udaipur district had the lowest (3.59%) disease outbreak. SSR was responsible to cause 18.80 per cent overall yield losses in two consecutive years (Rabi 2016-17 and 2017-18). Highest yield loss (43.82%) was observed from Bharatpur district while minimum yield loss (3.51%) had recorded from Udaipur district. Characteristics symptoms, formation of white mycelium on host stem and development of sclerotia on/inside the stem, of SSR on mustard crop were noted during survey.

Weed control efficacy of combined application of grass pea and mustard crop residues in T. aman rice

Among different methods of weed control, allelopathy could lead to reduced labor costs and increased efficiency, without any adverse effects on the environment. In this regard, an experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh to evaluate the allelopathic potential of grass pea and mustard crop residues on weed suppression and crop performance of transplanted aman rice. The experiment consisted of three cultivars of T. aman rice viz., Binadhan-7, BRRI dhan49 and BR11 and five different level of crop residues such as no use of crop residues, grass pea crop residues @ 2.5 t ha-1, mustard crop residues @ 2.5 t ha-1, combined use of grass pea and mustard crop residues @ 1 t ha-1 of each and hand weeding. All crop residues applied in the experiment suppressed weed growth and inhibition at satisfactory level. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Weed population, weed dry weight and percent inhibition of weed were not significantly influenced by the interaction effect of crop residues (grass pea and mustard) and cultivars. BR11 produced the highest grain and straw yield among the treatment combination. The highest numbers of tillers hill-1, numbers of grains panicle-1, 1000-grain weight, grain yield, straw yield were observed in hand weeding, followed by combined application of grass pea and mustard crop residues @ 1 t ha-1 of each treatment. The highest grain and straw yield (4.81 t ha-1 and 7.65 t ha-1) was observed in hand weeding along with variety BR11 and the second highest (4.19 t ha-1 and 7.36 t ha-1) was obtained from combined use of grass pea and mustard crop residues @ 1 t ha-1 of each. The results of this study indicate that hand weeding followed by combined application of grass pea and mustard crop residues @ 1 t ha-1 of each showed potential activity to suppress weed growth.