Effect of Different Levels of Nitrogen and Seed Treatment on Growth and Yield of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during Zaid 2023 at Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, SHUATS, Prayagraj (U.P) to determine the “Effect of Different levels of Nitrogen and Seed treatment on growth and yield of finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.)”. The soil of experimental plot was sandy loam in texture, nearly neutral in soil reaction (pH 7.8), low in organic carbon (0.62%), available nitrogen (225 kg/ha), available phosphorus (38.2 kg/ha) and available potassium (240.7 kg/ha). The treatments consisted of three levels of [Nitrogen 40 kg/ha, 50 kg/ha, 60kg/ha] and three types of Bio-fertilizers [Azospirillum 2 g/kg, Pseudomonas fluorescens 6 g/kg, Azotobacter 3 g/kg] as seed treatment, whose effect is observed in finger millet. The results revealed that the treatment with application of Nitrogen 60 kg/ha + Azospirillum 2 g/kg recorded higher plant height (86.27 cm), number of tillers/plant (8.67/plant), plant dry weight (23.41 g/plant), higher test weight (2.92 g), number of fingers/plant (5.67), number of ear heads/plant (3.32), number of grains/fingers (114.14), grain yield (2,635.65 kg/ha), straw yield (4,883.10 kg/ha) and Harvest index (35.05%). The economics viz., maximum gross returns (1,05,426.00 INR/ha), net returns (67,577.00 INR/ha) and B:C (1.78) was also recorded in treatment 7 [Nitrogen 60 kg/ha + Azospirillum 2 g/kg] as compared to other treatments.