CROP INTENSIFICATION PRACTICES FOR BETTER FINGER MILLET GROWTH

Author:
Menuka Pandey, Hemant Raj Awasthi, Roshan Subedi, Kamal Joshi

Doi: 10.26480/rfna.02.2023.71.77

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

The success of System of Rice intensification (SRI) has been extrapolated to numerous crops in the name of System of Crop Intensification (SCI). Similar to SRI, SCI practices tend to have beneficial effects, especially on the performance of tillering crops by optimizing tiller production. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at a farmer’s field in Sundarbazar, Lamjung from July 2018 to January 2019 to evaluate the influence of SCI practices on the performance of finger millet. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications, comprising five varieties (Okhle-1, Dalle-1, KabreKodo-1, KabreKodo-2 and Local) as main plot factors and planting methods (Direct Sowing (DS) at 20 cm ×10 cm, Conventional Transplanting (CT) at 10 cm × 10 cm with 30 days old seedling and System of Crop Intensification (SCI) at 25 cm × 25 cm with 15 days old seedling) as sub-plot factors. Growth attributes like plant height, tillering habit and growth rates were recorded maximum in SCI method resulting in highest yield (2.75 tons/ha). The yield obtained from CT and DS was 14.90% and 29.69% less than SCI. Kabrekodo-1 variety recorded maximum height at harvest and growth rate during both vegetative and reproductive phases also the yield of this variety was higher than other varieties. Thus, the study revealed Kabrekodo-1 as potential variety of the area and SCI as a better option to increase performance of finger millet.

Pages 71-77
Year 2023
Issue 2
Volume 4