Exploiting Possibilities of Short Duration Pigeonpea in Rice Fallows of Coastal Odisha, India

Aims: Need for horizontal expansion of pigeonpea encouraged for searching new niche. Out of 3.88 mha kharif rice area in Odisha 2.96 mha area estimated as rice fallow which should be exploited for growing pulses and oil seeds. Mild winter in coastal Odisha congenial for pigeonpea in winter and thus may be suitable for rice fallow situation after harvest of medium duration during November. A field experiment was conducted under rice fallow situation to evaluate the performance of promising short duration pigeonpea genotypes under partially irrigated medium land rice fallow situation of coastal Odisha.

Study Design: The trial was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four replications. The gross plot size was 5.4m X 4.2m and net plot size was 4.5m X 4m.

Place and Duration of Study: Nutri-Crops Research Station, OUAT, Berhampur, Odisha; Latitude: 19 deg. 18 min. Longitude: 84 deg. 54 min., Altitude: 34 m. above MSL.

Climatic Zone: The eastern coastal region of India and East and South Eastern Coastal plain zone of the state. The soil was sandy loam in texture with 6.2 pH. The trials were conducted for two consecutive years during 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Methodology: Altogether thirteen short duration genotypes of pigeonpea were tested in RBD with four replications. The crop was sown in third week of November during both the years.

Results: Significant variation was observed among pigeonpea genotypes in growth, yield attributes and yield parameters during both the years. The pooled data revealed that pigeonpea genotype Pusa-991 sown during mid November under rice fallow condition with life saving irrigation recorded maximum grain yield (1317 kg/ha and 10.57 kg/ha/day) followed by Laxmi (1199 kg/ha and 9.15 kg/ha/day) and TJT-501 (1127 kg/ha and 8.6 kg/ha/day). PUSA-991 harvested in 125 days has also registered maximum pod/plant (64.0) and seed per pod (3.7). Among the super early genotypes PUSA ARHAR-16 harvested in 104 days and identified as well performer (1113 kg/ha) and recorded maximum yield per day (10.70 kg/ha/day). Maximum harvest index (39.3%) was recorded with Pusa Arhar-16 closely followed by Pusa-991(39.1%). Maximum gross return per hectare (Rs. 75541/-), net profit (Rs.42541/-), per day net return (Rs.342/ha/day) with B:C ratio (2.29) were obtained with PUSA-991. Strong positive association was found between grain yield and number of effective pods per plant (r=0.73) and plant stand (r=0.74) of pigeonpea.

Concluding Remarks: Considering the growing windows of the agro-ecological situation and availability of life saving irrigation, pigeonpea variety Pusa-991 (125days) may be selected for larger window and Pusa Arhar-16 (104days) for narrow window under rice fallow situation of coastal Odisha.