PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY FOR RABI PULSES UNDER DRYLAND AGRICULTURE

In India important rabi pulses are chickpea, lentil, lathyrus, mungbean, urdbean, fababean etc. They are very much location specific depending on the dietary preference of the particular area or region. Chickpea occupied maximum area of rabi pulses (8.4 lakh ha) producing 6.68 lakh tonnes, during 1998-99. The area and production statistics in India for rabi pulses in summarized in Table 1.

The productivity of rabi pulses is very much dependent on the duration of winter. Long winter is one of the reason to have better productivity in northern states than those in Central and Southern India. Under dry land agriculture the rabi crops are more dependent on nature for their moisture requirement; which is decided by climatic factor like rainfall, sunshine hours, humidity, temperature, rate of open pan evaporation etc. In peninsular India, the winter is not very cool and the minimum temperature below 15^oC is for very limited period. Moreover, day temperature shoots up above 35^oC much earlier (in February or so) in Southern part as compared to North Indian States. Hence, the varietal requirement varies in different states. In north, long duration varieties (above 135 days maturity) can do well, while in Centre and South short duration varieties of 90 to 110 days are more preferable. The varieties of major rabi pulses for different states are listed in Table 2.

Land requirement : As the dry land crops are dependant on residual soil moisture without irrigation, the soils should have excellent water holding capacity with better drainage and rich in organic carbon. Traditionally rabi lands were very much reserved by keeping them fallow in kharif following frequent tillage through harrowing which help water conservation and weed control. However, now a days short duration kharif crops maturing before September end or early October (e.g. mung, udid soybean) are followed by rabi pulses. Under such circumstances, it is very necessary that the kharif crop is weed free with better mulching for soil moisture conservation. Immediately after harvest of kharif crop, it is necessary to have harrowing to have better pulverized seed bed without much loss of soil moisture for rabi pulses.

Sowing : Sowing of rabi pulses under dry land condition should synchronise better soil moisture availability. For this reason it is sown immediately after the land preparation (after harvest of short duration kharif crops. The optimum sowing time, seed rate, spacing for various rabi pulses are given in Table 3. They are however adjusted as per the soils and climates of different regions and states. In North-India prevailing cool, humid weather in November, permit the sowing of pulses as late as November end. However, in Central & South India dry land rabi sowing is restricted earlier by mid October.

Care to maintain optimum plant stand:

a) Check germination percentage and seed index of the seed available for sowing. Adjust the seed rate on germination and seed index, to maintain optimum plant stand given in Table 3.

b) Seed treatment with fungicide (e.g. thiram) at the rate of 3 g per kg seed should be undertaken to avoid early seedling mortality. Now a days antogonist fungi viz., Trichoderma herzianum or T.viridi is found effective to control the early seedling mortality due to Rhizoctonia, Sclerotium or Fusarium. The culture of T.harzianum or T.viridi is now available and its seed treatment @ 5g/kg seed is equally effective to the fungicidal seed treatment. Use of carboxy-methyl-cellulose (CMC) @ 1g/kg seed as an adhesive, makes the treatment more effective.

c) Levelled land with uniform steady slope and providing good drainage at prepara tory tillage avoids water logging due to untimely rains. It is one of the major factor to cause seedling mortality uncontrollable even by the fungicidal or antagonist’s seed treatment.

d) Uniform drilling preferably through mechanical seeddrill ensures optimum spacing and plant stand.

e) Timely weed control to keep the field weed free at least for 45 to 55 days from sowing ensures the better plant growth and plant population per unit area.

Interculture operations: These are dependent on the soil type and weed infestation. The basic aims of interculture in dryland rabi pulses are the moisture conservation and weed control. It is therefore necessary to avoid hard crust of soil surface due to untimely rains and soil cracks due to dry and hot weather during the period upto 45 days from sowing. Later the well developed crop canopy take care of both the factors i.e. moisture conservation and weed control.

Plant protection : Pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera) is a major pest of chickpea and also of other rabi pulses. Integrated management approach against the pest is necessary. It involve the management of insects to the lower level of infestation which does not cause economic damage to the crop, by using different practices, including cultural mechanical, biological and use of biopesticides ultimately reducing the use of chemical pesticides to the minimum possible extent.

Protective irrigation : Whenever possible under prolonged drought, protective irrigation to the rabi crops is very beneficial. It has been observed that a single irrigation at flowering or pod development (whenever water stress prevails), improves the productivity by 30 per cent, while two irrigations (at both these stages) gives 52% yield advantage.

Harvesting, threshing and storage: Timely harvest of the crop to avoid shattering losses, need not be stressed. The produce after threshing should be thoroughly dried to ensure seed moisture below 10% and stored at dry place. The produce should be well protected against bruchids.