2024, Vol. 7, Special Issue 8

author(s)
Arun C Kanagalabavi, NJ Jadav, Dayanand Patil and Ashish Raja Jhangid

abstract
In India, especially those in arid and semi-arid regions, are battling serious problems with agricultural productivity brought on by soil degradation and finite water supplies. The use of soil additives, particularly in dry and semi-arid regions, to enhance soil qualities and water consumption productivity has drawn the most interest. This study's objective was to evaluate the impact of hydrogel on plant growth metrics. A field experiment on “Effect of hydrogel and irrigation on growth and yield of summer groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under middle Gujarat condition” was carried out at Agronomy Farm, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand during summer season of the year 2020. The experiment was laid out in split plot design. Twelve treatment combinations comprising of three levels of irrigation schedules based on IW/CPE ratio as main plot treatments as well as four hydrogel treatments taken in the sub plot treatments, with three replications. The results revealed that all the growth parameters viz., plant population, plant height and dry biomass, yield parameters viz., number of pods per plants, seed index, pod yield, kernel yield, haulm yield and quality parameters viz., protein content were significantly increased by irrigation scheduling at 0.8 IW/CEP ratio along with application of hydrogel @ 6 kg ha-1.