Effect of natural farming on growth, yield attributes and quality of groundnut - wheat crop sequence

Abstract:

A field experiment entitled, “Evaluation of natural farming practices in groundnut - wheat crop sequence under North Gujarat condition” was carried out during two consecutive kharif and rabi seasons of 2022-23 and 2023-24 on loamy sand soil of in texture with low organic carbon and available N, medium in available P2O5 and high in available K2O at Department of Seed Technology, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar. The six treatments consisted in groundnut + blackgram intercrop under natural farming practices were laid down in randomized block design followed by wheat + chickpea intercrop during rabi on same site. The result revealed that under groundnut + blackgram intercrop conventional farming (100% of RDF + 10 t/ha FYM) registered significantly higher plant height number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant in both the crop and higher pod yield (1588, 1524 and 1556 kg/ha, respectively), highest haulm yield (2580, 2238 and 2609 kg/ha, respectively) in blackgram and seed yield (308, 288 and 298 kg/ha, respectively), stover yield (582, 570 and 576 kg/ha, respectively) in blackgram during 2022-23 and 2023-24 and in pooled study. In case of wheat + chickpea intercrop recorded significantly higher plant height at harvest, number of tillers and effective tillers, length of spike, highest grain yield (3584, 3402 and 3493 kg/ha, respectively), higher straw yield (4674, 4336 and 4505 kg/ha, respectively) in wheat and chickpea found non significant result in seed and stover yield.