Minor millets in South Asia: learnings from IFAD-NUS project in India ...

132 minor millets in south asia
Table 21. Grain yield and other traits of finger millet in plant density-cum- fertilizer trial
at Khumaltar (2002)
Treatment Plant
stand/m 2
Bearing
heads/m 2
No. of
fingers/
head
Plant
height
(cm)
Grain
yield
(q/ha)
Straw yield
(q/ha)
t 1 91.7 100 5 77 22.91 87.78
t 2 88.7 95 6 84 23.84 104.82
t 3 91.3 91 6 83 22.73 101.85
t 4 87.0 91 6 79 22.46 92.59
t 5 30.3 45 5 63 11.25 37.04
t 6 30.0 53 6 68 13.10 48.52
t 7 30.7 54 6 70 13.74 48.89
t 8 30.7 52 6 69 14.54 51.11
mean 60.1 72.6 5.7 74.1 18.07 71.57
CV% 12.13 17.14 7.4 3.8 12.72 11.37
F test ** ** ns ** ** **
LSD 0.05% 7.8 13.34 0.43 3.0 246.4 873
ha farm yard manure (FYM), 30 kg P 2 O 5 /ha and 30 kg K 2 O/ha indicating that balanced
nutrient from organic and inorganic fertilizers was more important in finger millet. The
results of plant density and fertilizer trial conducted at Kabre in 2004 revealed (Fig. 10)
that 10 cm × 10 cm spacing with the application of NPK fertilizers at 50:30:30 kg/ha rate
proved to be the best combination for attaining the highest grain yield and therefore,
such combination might be recommended for general cultivation.
7.3. Effect of plant density and method of nitrogen application on performance
of finger millet under maize-millet system
The experiment was conducted under maize-finger millet relay cropping system at
Khumaltar in summer 2003. The soil of the experimental plot was acidic (pH 5.0) and the
texture was clay loam with lower level of organic matter (OM). Total nitrogen, phosphorus
(P 2 O 5 ) and potash (K 2 O) were found to be low, medium and high, respectively. Rampur
composite variety of maize was planted with 120:60:40 N; P 2 O 5 : K 2 O kg/ha two months
before finger millet transplanting. Finger millet variety Kabre Kodo 1 was transplanted at
10 cm × 10 cm, 10 cm × 15 cm, and 10 cm × 20 cm distances in the standing crop of maize.
Nitrogen for finger millet was applied at 30 kg/ha rate as follows: (i) all nitrogen 30 days
after transplanting and (ii) 50% nitrogen after 30 days of transplanting and remaining
50% after 10 days of first application. The sources of fertilizers were urea, di-ammonium
phosphate and muriate of potash. Plot size was 12.0 m 2 .The experiment was conducted
in a randomized complete block design with three replications and six treatments
(Table 22). The data were analyzed using MSTATC (Computer based statistical
software package).