2024, Vol. 7, Special Issue 10

author(s)
Jitendra Kumar and Sant Bahadur Singh

abstract
Pulses are important for the nutritional security point of view of the cereal based vegetarian diet of large scale of country. India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses in the world. It has been projected that 32 million tonnes of total pulse requirement for the burgeoning population of India, which will grow to 1.69 billion by 2050. To attain up to this level an annual growth rate of 2.2% is required. The demand for pulses continues to grow at 2.8% per annum. Although challenges are diverse including climate changing scenario, decreasing land and water resources, this target is not unattainable. Increasing the average productivity of pulses to > 1200 kg ha^-1 and bringing an additional area of about 3.5 million hectare under pulses cultivation will be a concrete step in this direction. In order to study the effect of different nutrient and weed management practices a field experiment, entitled “Effect of Nutrient and Weed management on growth, yield and nutrient uptake of field pea (Pisum sativum L. var. arvense)” was conducted at the Agricultural Research Farm (Department of Agronomy), Raja Balwant Singh College, Bichpuri (Agra) during Rabi seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23 with the objectives, to study the effect of nutrient management on yield and quality of field pea, to find out the suitable nutrient and weed management for field pea and to study the economic feasibility of the treatments. Experiment was laid out using two factor viz., main plot treatments (4): NM₀-Control, NM₁-100% RDF (20:40:20 NPK kg ha^-1), NM₂-75% RDF + 2 t FYM ha^-1, NM₃-75% RDF + 2 t FYM ha^-1 + Rhizobium + PSB and sub plot treatments (5): WM₀-Unweeded, WM₁-Weed free, WM₂-Pendimethalin 30% EC @ 1.0 kg a.i. ha^-1 as PE + 1 Hand weeding at 30 DAS, WM₃-Imazethapyr 10% SL @ 25 ml a.i. ha^-1 as PoE at 15-20 DAS, WM₅-Quizalofop ethyl 5% EC @ 75 g a.i. ha^-1 as PoE at 10-15 DAS. The treatments were replicated thrice and laid out under split plot design (SPD). Highest per plant studies and yield attributes viz., number of plants per running metre, number of pods plant^-1, number of grains pod^-1, seed weight (g), shelling percent and number of pods plant^-1, weight of pods plant^-1 (g), length of pods plant^-1 (cm), number of grains plant^-1, biological yield plant^-1 (g), grain yield plant^-1 (g) and straw yield plant^-1 (g) of field pea has been achieved with the application of 75% RDF + 2 t FYM ha^-1 + Rhizobium + PSB with weed control using pendimethalin 30% EC @ 1.0 kg a.i. ha^-1 as PE + 1 Hand weeding at 30 DAS during first year, second year and pooled respectively. The data pertaining to the qualitative studies viz., nutrient content (N P K %), protein (%) and protein yield (kg ha^-1) in grain and straw, nutrient uptake (N P K kg ha^-1) by grain and straw are presented in table 4 to 7.The data related to weed studies viz., weed density of broad leaved weeds (no. m^-2), weed density of grassy weeds (no. m^-2), weed density of sedges (no. m^-2), total weed density (no. m^-2), number of weed species (m^-2), fresh & dry weight of weeds (g m^-2) and weed control efficiency (WCE %) are presented in tables from 8 to 12 during both the year of experimentation. Highest productivity of field pea have been achieved with the application of 75% RDF + 2 t FYM ha^-1 + Rhizobium + PSB with weed control using pendimethalin 30% EC @ 1.0 kg a.i. ha^-1 as PE + 1 Hand weeding at 30 DAS and the maximum net returns was fetched when nutrient management was done by application of 75% RDF + 2 t FYM ha^-1 + Rhizobium + PSB and weeds were controlled with pendimethalin 30% EC @ 1.0 kg a.i. ha^-1 as PE + 1 Hand weeding at 30 DAS. But, Maximum B: C ratio was fetched when nutrient management was done by application of 75% RDF + 2 t FYM ha^-1 + Rhizobium + PSB, (2.06, 2.27 and 2.16) and weeds were controlled by Imazethapyr 10% SL @ 25 ml a.i. ha^-1 as PoE at 15-20 DAS, (2.16, 2.36 and 2.26) during first year, second year and pooled respectively.