Effect of FYM, nitrogen and foliar spray of iron on productivity and economics of irrigated groundnut in an arid region of India

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to discover the effect of farm yard manure (FYM), nitrogen and foliar spray of iron on the yield of irrigated groundnut in the arid region of Rajasthan, India, over two consecutive kharif (rainy) seasons in 2004 and 2005. The treatments comprised two levels of FYM and five levels of nitrogen in the main plots and three levels of foliar spray of iron in the subplots. The results of the study revealed that the application of FYM at 15 t ha−1 improved the yield attributes, haulm yield and pod yield significantly by 7.9%. Increasing the level of nitrogen increased the mean number of pods per plant, shelling percentage, seed and pod indices progressively up to the highest level of 60 kg ha−1 applied in three splits leading to pod yield significantly higher by 1565 kg ha−1 over control. Foliar iron spray in combination with citric acid was helpful in correcting the chlorotic symptoms and improving the yield attributes of groundnut and pod yield by 14.84% significantly. Combining the application of FYM at 15 t ha−1, nitrogen at 60 kg ha−1 in three splits and foliar spray of 1% FeSO4 integrated with 0.1% citric acid improved benefit to cost ratio (B:C ratio) and recorded the highest net returns (60,159 Rs. ha−1) that was higher by 274% over absolute control.