Response of nutrient management approaches in conjugation with zinc and iron on growth, yield and yield attributes of foxtail millet (<em>Setaria italica</em> l.) chickpea (<em>Cicer arietinum</em> L.) cropping sequence

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted during kharif and rabi seasons of 2017-18 and 2018-19 at Krishi Vigyana Kendra Farm, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka to study the response of nutrient management approaches in conjugation with zinc and iron on growth, yield and yield attributes of foxtail millet-chickpea cropping sequence by involving individual treatments RDF, STL method and SSNM targeted yield approaches and also in combination with different levels of zinc sulphate and iron sulphate. Application of nutrients through SSNM for targeted yield of 20 q ha-1 + ZnSO47H2O and FeSO47H2O each @ 20 kg ha-1 recorded significantly higher plant height (142.19 cm), number of leaves (11.66 plant-1), total dry matter production (28.94 g plant-1), ear head length (19.88 cm), ear head weight (9.74 g) and grain yield (20.30 q ha-1). The growth parameters of chickpea crop viz., plant height, total number of branches plant-1 and total dry matter production plant-1 (37.38 cm, 35.32 and 19.27 g, respectively), yield attributes viz., number of pods, seed weight and seed yield were significantly higher (47.82 plant-1, 18.40 g plant-1, 25.06 q ha-1 and 23.81 g, respectively) with the residual effect of nutrients applied through SSNM approach for targeted yield of 20 q ha-1 + ZnSO47H2O and FeSO47H2O each @ 20 kg ha-1 followed by SSNM approach for targeted yield of 20 q ha-1 ZnSO47H2O and FeSO47H2O each @ 10 kg ha-1 as compared to other treatments.