Annals of Arid Zone-19(3), 221-225, 1980

Studies on suitable agronomical practices for safflowerunder dry land conditions of central Uttar Pradesh

SURAJ BRAN, J. P. SINGH AND R. N. PATHAK

Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur

INTRODUCTION

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.)is a popular oilseed crop of the state ofMaharashtra, Karnataka and AndhraPradesh but in Uttar Pradesh, it is grownonly in certain pockets in eastern andwestern parts of the State. Neverthelessrecent researches conducted at Kanpurare convincing to show that owing tohardy nature and low nutritional require-ment, safflower has tremendous scope forextension in rainfed areas of the State(Garg and Bhan, 1977). Since there isdearth of information on various agron-omical aspects of rainfed crop of safflow-er, the present investigation on the effectof spacing, nitrogen and moisture con-servation practices was undertaken atKanpur.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A field experiment was conducted for2 consecutive seasons of rabi (winter)1974-75 and 1975-76 at the ResearchFarm of the Chandra Shekhar AzadUniversity of Agriculture and Techno-logy, Kanpur. The treatments comprisedof 18 combinations of 2 row spacingsviz. 45 cm and 60 cm, 3 levels of nitro-yen viz. 0, 20 and 40 kg N /ha and 3moisture conservation practices viz. con-t~ol, intercultivation twice, first by cul-

tivator after about a month and subse-quent by khurpi after about 2 months ofsowing and paddy straw mulch at 2.0tonnes/ha in between the crop rows afterabout a month of sowing. The treatmentswere replicated thrice in a split-~lotdesign of layout keeping the combinationsof row spacings X levels of nitrogen inmain plots and moisture conservationpractices in sub-plots. The ultimate plotsize was 5 m X 3.6 m.

The soil of the experimental field waslight loam in texture having field capacity18.9 per cent and wilting point 5.24 percent of the upper 0-25 cm soil layer. Onchemical analysis it exhibited organic car-bon 0.26 per cent, available P205 18 kg/ha, available K20 60 kgjha and pH 7.6.Safflower (Var. T. 65') was sown after'the rainy (kharif) season fallow on 16October 1974 and after a pre-sowingirrigation on 11 November 1975 and washarvested on 21 April 1975 and 27April 1976. The crop received a uniformbasal application of 20 kg P205/hathrough super phosphate. The whole fer-tilizer dose as per treatment was drilledin furrows 2-3 cm below the seed at sow-ing with help of a funnel attached behindthe country plouth. After about 3 weeksof sowing, excess plants were thinned outand a distance of 25 cm was maintainedbetween the plants. At sowing the avail-able soil moisture storage in 100 cm soil

r

222 : SURAJ BHAN et ai.

profile was 18.64 em and 19.10 em dur-ing 1974 and 1975 respectively. A rain-fall of 3.21 em during 1974-75 and2.5 em during 1975-76 was received dur-ing the cropping season. Observationswere recorded on plant height number ofbranches, number capsules per plant andgrains per capsule by selecting 4 plantsrandomly from each plot, apart fromstudies made on maturity, 1000-grainweight and grain yield.

The soil moisture was determinedthermo-gravimetrically from the samplescollected in soil layers of 25 em to a depthof 100 em at monthly interval. Theamount of moisture use by the crop underdifferent treatments was calculated bysumming up the values of depletion ofsoil moisture of profile during the entireseason. The equation E= YlET as givenby Viets (1962) was employed to cal-culate the water use efficiency of the cropunder different treatments.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

(a) Growth and Yield Attributes

Effect of Row Spacing: Wider row spac-ing of 60 em exhibited an alround bettereffect on the growth and yield attributesof safflower over narrow row spacing of45 em (Table 1). As regards the grain

Table 1. Effect of row spacing on safflower

yield, the former was significantly sup-erior over the latter during 1974-75.However, in the subsequent year (1975-76) the two spacings were found statisti-cally at par. This variation in the trend ofresults may be attributed to delayed sow-ing of the crop during 1975-76, where itwas 26 days late in comparison to 1974-75 as a consequence of which the plantsspaced widely could not express in fullgrowth. Subbiah and Shivraman (1965)also reported a spacing of 60 em X 22.5em as optimum for safflower at Kovil-patti.Effect of Nitrogen: A well marked effectof nitrogen application was observed onthe growth and yield attributes of saf-flower where the plant height number ofbranches and capsules per plant, numberof seeds per capsule and 1000-grainweight were significantly improved bynitrogen application over control (Table2). The effect of lower dose (20 kg N/ha) of nitrogen was more pronouncedover control than the effect of subsequenthigher dose (40 kg N /ha) over the lowerone. Nitrogen also exhibited a delayingeffect on the maturity of the crop, how-ever, it was not found statistically signi-ficant. The grain yield of safflower wassignificantly increased by nitrogen ap-plication where increase of the order of2.9 q/ha (32 per cent) and 3.7 qlha

1974-75 1975-76Treatment 45 cm 60cm CD5% 45 em 60 em CD5%

Days to maturity 1834 183.3 N.S. 1664 166.3 N.S.

Plant height (c.n) 97.3 108.7 1.05 1293 128.7 N.S.

Branches/plant 12.3 14.1 N.S. 11.6 13.8 N.S.

Capsules/plant 1\.9 13.7 0.65 18.1 20.9 2.5

Grains/capsule 65.3 65.2 N.S. 55.5 59.8 2.8

1000-grain weight (g) 49.6 49.7 N.S. 40.1 40.8 N.S.

Grain yield (q/ha) 10.2 11.9 1.3 12.7 13.1 N.S.

SAFFLOWER PRODUCTION INU. P. 223

Table 2. Effect of levels of N (kg/ha) on safflower

Treatment1974-75

N,. N4• CD 50/.1975-76

N2• N--;;-CD-5%

Days to maturity .Plant height (cm)Branches/plantCapsule/plantGrains/capsulelOOO-grain weight (g)Grain yield (q/ha)

182.498.910.810.655.249.6

8.9

183.5103.9

12.912.467.249.911.8

184.1106.9

15.915.372.250.012.6

N.S.1.32.90.83.10.41.6

165.7126.2

11.418.054.039.810.9

166.6129.4

12.819.757.740.513.6

167.4131.5

13.1!20.961.140814.2

NS.N.S.

1.81.44.9

N.S.1.2

(41 per cent) during 1974-75 and 2.7q/ha (24 per cent) and 3.3 q/ha(30 per cent) during 1975-76 werebrought about by the application of 20 kgand 40 kg N/ha respectively over con-trol. The latter two doses of N, however,did not differ significantly among them-selves in either year of experimentation.These results are in conformity with thoseof Ramanmurthy and Kulkarni (1967)who reported a dose of 23.2 kg Nand23.2 kg P20s/ha as optimum for saf-flower.Effect of Moisture Conservation Prac-tices: Inter-cultivation and paddy strawmulch brought about significant improve-ment in growth and yield attributes andthe grain yield of safflower over control(Table 3). The grain yield due to inter-cultivation was increased by 4.0 q/ha

(54 per cent) and 2.8 q/ha (27 per cent)and due to mulch was increased by 6.8q/ha (91 per cent) and 4.1 q/ha (39 percent) over control during the year 1974'-75 and 1975-76 respectively. Favourableeffects of intercultivation and mulch onthe yield on account of moisture conser-vation have been reported by Ali andPrasad (1972), Bansal et cil. (1971),Umrani etal. (1973) and Bhan (1976b).Application of mulch delayed the matu-rity of the crop significantly by 6.4 daysand 6.7 days during 1974-75 and 1975-76 respectively. Intercultivation also de-layed the maturity but the difference overthe control was not statistically signi-ficant. Bhan (197 6b) reported similardelay in maturity of Sarson due to inter-cultivation and application of paddystraw mulch.

Table 3. Effect of moisture conservation practices on safflower

1974-75 1975-76

224 : SURA:T BHAN et al.

Water Utilization and Water Use Effici-ency: The erop sown in rows 45 em apartshowed a slightly higher amount of wateruse than that sown in 60 em wider rowswhich was higher by 8.6 mm during1974-75 and 5.5 mm during 1975-76,but the water use efficiency was higher in

the latter (Table 4). This is in confor-mity with the views of Bhan (1974) whomentioned that if the plant population perunit area is higher the share per plant forwater will naturally be smaller which isbound to exhaust moisture quicker andcause drought sooner resulting in lower

Table 4. Water utilization and water use efficiency of safflower as influenced by row spacinglevel of nitrogen and moisture cons.:rvation practices '

1974-75 1975-76

Treatment Grain Water Water use Grain Water Water useyield use efficiency yield use efficiency(kg/ha) (mm) (kg grainl (kg/ha) (mm) (kg grainf

mm water) mm water)

Row spacingst5 cm 1026 254.0 4.03 1276 237.3 5.37

60 cm 1195 5.4 4.86 1314 231.8 5.66

Nitrogen levels (kg/ha)0 896 241.7 3.70 1096 226.7 4.83

20 1177 251.1 4.68 1365 240.5 5.67

40 1259 256.5 4.90 1427 236.6 6.03

MulchingNo Mulch 747 258.0 2.89 1063 242.3 4.38

Intercultivation 1155 247.7 4.66 1347 235.8 5.71Paddy straw mulch 1430 243.3 5.87 1476 226.7 6.51

Table 5. E.:onomics of safflower as influenced by row spacing and level of N and moistureconservation practices

Row spacings45 cm 1I .5060 cm 12.52

Nitrogen levels (kg[ha)N 9.96Nw 12.70N.o 13.38

Moisture conservation practicesControl 9.04Intercultivation 12.49 3.45 517.50 60.00 457.50Paddy straw mulch 14.5 I 5.41 820.00 250.00 572.50

Price of safflower Rs 150 OO/q, paddy straw Rs 1O.00fq, cost of application of mulch Rs 50.00/ha,cost of intercultivation twice Rs 60.00/ha and cost of N through urea Rs 4.50fkg N (includingapplication charges) were considered in the above calculation.

Treatment

Grainyield(q[ha)

Additionalgrain yield

(q[ha)

1.02

2.743.42

Value ofadditionalproduce(Rs/ha)

153.00

411.00513.00

Additionalexpenditure

(Rsfha)

12.50

90.00180.00

Additionalreturn

(Rsfha)

165.50

321.00333.00

yield and water use efficiency. Applica-tion of nitrogen increased the amount ofmoisture use as well as water use effici-ency. The crop fertilized with 20 kg N/ha showed a difference of 9.4 mm and14.2 mm in moisture use and 0.98 and0.84 kg grain/mm water in water useefficiency over control during the year1974-75 and 1975-76 respectively. Theseresults are in full accord with those byBhan and Misra (1970) who obtainedsimilar results in groundnut at Jodhpur.As regards the efficiency of the mulch,there was lesser utilization of water underintercultivation and paddy straw mulchas compared to the unmulched plot butthe efficiency of water use was higher incase of the former. This may be ascribeddue to more conservation of moisture byintercultivation and mu~ch which madethe moisture available to the plant forlonger time. Beneficial effects of intercul-tivation and mulch are on record (Aliand Prasad, 1972; Bansal et al., 1971;Bhan, 1976 a).Economics of Treatments: A perusal ofthe data in Table 5 reveals that row spac-ingof 60 cm was profitable by Rs. 165.50/ha over row spacing of 45 cm in saf-flower. Application of 20 kg N/ha whichinvolved expenditure of Rs. 90/ha gavean additional income of Rs. 321/ha overcontrol (unfertilized plot). Similarly theapplication of paddy straw mulch and in-tercultivation involved additional expen-diture, respectively of Rs. 250.00 andRs. 80.00/ha but resulted in additionalreturn of Rs. 572.50 and Rs. 457.50 /harespectively over control.

REFERENCES

Ali, Masood and Prasad, Rajendra 1972.

SAFFLOWER PRODUCTION IN U. P. : 225

Mulching means more moisture.Indian Fmg. 22(9): 38-39.

Bansal, S. P., Gajri, P. R. and Parihar,S. S. 1971. Effect of mulches onwater conservation, Soil tempera-ture and growth of maize and pearlmillet. Indian J. Agric. Sci. 41 (5):467-73.

Bhan, Suraj 1974. Dry farming researchin Uttar Pradesh. World Crops26(2): 73-74.

Bhan, Suraj 1976 a. Root developmentand moisture use of rainfed brownsarson as influenced by agronomicpractices. Indian J. Agron. 21 (3) :245-48.

Bhan, Suraj 1976 b. Studies on suitableagronomical practices for brownsarson in Uttar Pradesh. Indian J.Agron. 21 (3) 271-76.

Bhan, Suraj and Misra, D. K. 1970.Water utilization by groundnut(Arachis hypogaea L.) as influenc-ed due to variety, plant populationand soil fertility level under AridZone conditions. Indian J. Agron.15(3): 258-63.

Garg, J. S. and Bhan, Suraj 1977. Saf-flower has great potential in UttarPradesh. Indian Fmg. 27(4): 21-22.

Ramanmurthy, C. V. and Kulkarni,L. G. 1967. Mixed croppiIig in saf-flower. Indian Fmg. 19(9): 11-13.

Subbiah, V. and Shivraman, M. R.1965. Increasing yield in safflower.Indian Oilseeds J. 9(2): 155-56.

Umrani, N. K., Pharande, K. S. andQuamarzzaman, S. 1973. Mulchingconserves extra moisture. IndianFmg. 23(5): 24-25.

Viets, F. G. Jr. 1962. Fertilizers and theefficient use of water. Adv. Agron.

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