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Effect of irrigation on yield, quality and water use efficiency of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea).

Issa Piri

Assistant Professor and chancellor of Payame Noor University of Sistan & Baluchestan, Zahedan, IRAN, Email:Issapiri@yahoo.com

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out during the rabi seasons of 2003-4 & 2004-5 at I.A.R.I.(Indian Agriculture Research Institute )New Delhi(India) to examine the effect of irrigation and sulphur on yield attributes, yield, quality and water use efficiency of Indian mustard(Brassica juncea). Results indicated that two irrigations at 45 days after sowing (DAS) and 90 DAS recorded significantly higher number of siliquae per plant, increased 1000 grain weight, seed yield, oil yield and protein content over one irrigation treatment and the control. However for number of seeds per siliqua and oil content, one irrigation at 45 DAS remained parallel with two irrigations. The water use efficiency was highest with one irrigation at 45 DAS.

Key words

Irrigation, Siliqua, Protein content, Oil content, Oil yield, Seed yield, water use efficiency.

1 Introduction

India is the third largest oil seed producing country in the world. Rapeseed and mustard account for 21 per cent of the total oil seed production in the country (Government of India 2004-05).

However, its productivity is low as compared to other countries. One of the primary reasons for low productivity is the unavailability of adequate irrigation. Irrigation increases productivity as evidenced from the research results available in different parts of the country (Khan and Aggarwal [3]). Crops receiving only two irrigations at pre-flowering and pod-filling stages produce about 33 percent more seed than unirrigated crops, (Gangasaran and Giri[2]). This study was carried out in order to determine the effects of different irrigation treatments on this crop.

2 Materials and Methods

The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replicates. The treatments consisted of three levels of irrigation (no irrigation, one irrigation at 45 DAS and two irrigations at 45 and 90 DAS) on main plots and four levels of sulphur (0, 15, 30 and 45 kg S/ha) in sub plots. Since the interaction between irrigation and sulphur treatment was not shown to be significant, only irrigation effects are reported in this paper. The Indian mustard variety Pusa jagganath was sown on 20th October and 18th October respectively in 2003-04 and 2004-05 with 45×15 cm2 spacing. The soil of experimental site was sandy loam and had 195.0 kg available N, 11.0 kg P, 165.0 kg K and 14.0 ppm available sulphur.

3 Results & discussion

Irrigation influences favourable yield attributes of rapeseed and mustard by supplementing the water need of the crop.

3.1. Effect of irrigation on yield attributes

3.1.1 Number of Siliquae/plant

Results in Table 1. indicated that two irrigations at 45 DAS and 90 DAS recorded significantly higher number of siliquae/plant over one irrigation and no irrigation (control).This may be due to better growth with higher availability of nutrients from two irrigations. The second irrigation at 90 DAS which occurred at pod formation stage which is a critical stage for mustard and may have helped in better sink development. Similar results were earlier reported by Singh and Dixit [7].

Table. 1: Effect of irrigation on yield attributes of Indian mustard.

Treatments

No. of siliquae/Plants

No. of seeds/siliqua

1000 grain weight

2003-04

2004-05

2003-04

2004-05

2003-04

2004-05

No irrigation

246.3

283.9

11.00

12.3

4.10

4.60

One irrigation

368.4

409.4

12.10

14.1

5.30

5.90

Two irrigations

456.8

507.6

12.70

15.0

5.90

6.50

Cd (5%)

26.0

282

0.74

1.0

0.32

0.34

3.1.2 Number of seeds/Siliqua

Results in Table 1. indicate that application of two irrigations at 45 DAS and 90 DAS increased the number of seeds/siliqua, however, significant response was observed up to one irrigation at 45 DAS. This might be due to formation of more number of siliqua/plant with two irrigations, therefore, no significant increase was recorded with two irrigation for number of seeds/siliqua. Such results were earlier reported by Singh and Dixit[7].

3.1.3 1000 grain weight

Results in table 1. indicated that application of two irrigations at 45 DAS and 90 DAS recorded significantly higher 1000 grain weight over one irrigation. This may be due to better availability of nutrients along with better translocation of photosynthates from source to sink area and helped in higher accumulation of photosynthates in the seeds. Similar results were earlier reported by Singh and Dixit[7] and Singh et al [8].

3.2 Yield

Irrigation plays a vital role in increasing the yield of rapeseed and mustard.

3.2.1 Seed yield

Results in Table 2. indicated that application of two irrigations at 45 DAS and 90 DAS recorded significantly higher seed yield over one irrigation . The per cent increase in seed yield due to two irrigations was 10.7 and 10.1 over one irrigation and 60.9 and 61.3 over no irrigation in 2003-04 and 2004-05 respectively. Similarly one irrigation increased seed yield over no irrigation by 45.3 and 46.5 per cent in 2003-04 and 2004-05 respectively .The significant improvement in the mustard seed yield may be the cumulative effect of significant improvement in the value of yield attributes like number of siliquae per plant,number of seeds per siliqua and test weight. Similar finding were earlier reported by Bharati et al [1].

Table 2: Effect of irrigation on yield and quality of Indian mustard.

Treatments

Seed yield(q/ha)

Oil content(%)

Oil yield(Kg/ha)

2003-04

2004-05

2003-04

2004-05

2003-04

2004-05

No irrigation

12.8

14.20

34.40

35.50

440.3

504.1

One irrigation

18.8

20.80

36.20

37.30

673.3

775.8

Two irrigations

20.6

22.90

38.00

39.10

782.8

895.4

Cd (5%)

1.4

1.27

2.27

2.17

46.03

50.0

3.2.2 Oil yield

Results in Table 2. indicated that application of two irrigations at 45 and 90 DAS recorded significantly higher oil yield over one irrigation. Since oil yield is a function of oil content and seed yield, the increased oil yield is mainly achieved through increased seed yield. Similar results have been reported by Sharma et al [5].

3.3 Quality parameters

Protein content and oil content also improved in protein and oil content in seed of Indian mustard.

3.3.1 Protein content

Results in Table 3. indicate that application of two irrigations at 45 and 90 DAS significantly increased the protein content in seed over one irrigation. This may be due to more nitrogen uptake through better mineralization and translocation of nitrogen. Similar results have been reported by Sharma et al.[6].

Table 3: Effect of irrigation on protein content and water use efficiency of Indian mustard

Treatments

Protein content(%)

Water use efficiency (Kg/ha.mm)

2003-04

2004-05

2003-04

2004-05

No irrigation

16.0

17.7

7.7

8.0

One irrigation

18.5

20.6

9.1

9.6

Two irrigations

19.8

22.0

8.6

9.3

Cd (5%)

0.86

1.21

---

---

3.3.2 Oil content

Results in Table 2. indicate that application of two irrigations at 45 and 90 DAS increased the oil content in seed, however significant response was observed up to one irrigation at 45 DAS and remained statistically at par with two irrigations at 45 and 90 DAS. An increase in seed oil content due to irrigation might have resulted because from better availability of nitrogen and other nutrients responsible for higher oil content in seed. Similar results have been reported by Meena and Sumeriya[4].

3.4. Water use efficiency

Results in Table 3. indicate that application of one irrigation at 45 DAS recorded higher water use efficiency over both the control and the two irrigation treatments. This may be due to comparatively greater yield increase with one irrigation over two irrigations, since water use efficiency is a relative concept and depends on seed yield and consumptive water use. Similar results were earlier reported by Yadav et al [9].

Conclusion

From the above results and discussion we can conclude that application of two irrigation at 45 and 90 DAS synchronised with critical stages of growth (flowering and pod formation respectively) recorded higher seed yield and oil yield.

References

[1] Bharati,V.,Prasad,U.K.and Singh,J.P., Irrigation and sulphur on yield and Nutrient uptake of Indian mustard. Journal of farming system research ad development 8(1), pp.97- 98, 2003.

[2] Gangasaran and Giri,G. Growth and yield of mustard as influenced by irrigation and plant population. Annals of Agricultural Research. 7(1), pp. 68-74 ,1986.

[3]Khan,G.M.and Agarwal,S.K. Influence of sowing methods, moisture Stress and nitrogen levels on growth,yield components and seed yield of mustard .Indian journal of agricultural Science 55(5), pp. 324-327,1985.

[4]Meena,B.S.and sumeriya,H.K. Influence of nitrogen levels, irrigation and interculture on oil and protein content ,soil moisture status and interaction effects of mustard. (Brassica Juncea).Crop Research 26(3) , pp. 409-413,2003.

[5]Sharma,A.K.Sharma,A.M.and Sharma,Y.M.Effect of irrigation, nitrogen and sulphur application on seed yield, quality and sulphur uptake by Indian mustard. Agricultural Science Digest 14, pp. 63-67,1994.

[6]Sharma,G.,Sutaliya,R.,Prasad,S.and Sharma,M.L. Effect of irrigation and intercropping system on growth, yield and quality of mustard and line seed. Journal of crop research 25(3), pp. 579-581,2003.

[7]Singh,S.S.and Dixit,R.S.1989.Response of mustard to various levels of irrigation and nitrogen. Indian Journal of Agronomy 34(3), pp. 307-311,1989.

[8]Singh,B.,Singh,B.P.,Faroda,A.S.and Gupta,S.k. Effect of irrigation and nitrogen levels on the quality of oil yield of Brassica species. Indian Journal of Agronomy 39, pp. 262-265,1994.

[9]Yadav,K.S.,Rajput,R.L.,Verma,O.P. and Yadava,R.P. Effect of sowing dates and irrigation levels on seed yield and quality of Indian mustard. Indian Journal of Agronomy 41, pp. 275-278,1996.

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