Productivity and Sustainability Enhancement of Moth Bean through Improved Technology of CFLD under Hyper Arid Partially Irrigated Zone of Rajasthan

Field experiment on moth bean were conducted at farmers’ fields in villages viz., Benisar, Bhojas and Husangsar during Kharif seasons of 2016 and Dasuri during 2019 of Bikaner district in Rajasthan state to demonstrate production potential and economic benefit of improved technologies comprising sowing method, nutrient management and chemical weed control and adoption of whole package of practices for the crop. Pendimethalin as Pre emergence at 1.0 kg a.i ha -1 in 500 liter of water used for effective control of the weeds during kharif season. If the weeds emerge after planting, Imazethapyr @ 37.5 g a.i. ha -1 as post-emergence sprayed at 30 days after sowing. Results revealed that improved technology demonstration gave higher and sustainable yield of moth bean over the years compared to farmers practice. The mean yield recorded (739 kg ha -1 ), which was 25.04 per cent higher as compared to farmers practice (591 kg ha -1 ). Sustainability of moth bean yield reflects the higher sustainability yield index (0.667) and sustainability value index (0.515). Improved technology possesses incremental benefit cost ratio (5.3) over farmers practice still there was an extension gap of 148 kg ha -1 seed yield, indicating that along with many move front line demonstrations there is a need to disseminate the improved technologies among the farmers with effective extension methods like training and demonstrations. However, the mean technology gap of 241 kg ha -1 seed yield clearly indicates that research efforts are needed in realizing the potentiality of the moth bean crop under hyper arid partially irrigated zone of Rajasthan. Keyword: Moth bean, Sustainability yield index, Sustainability value index, Improved technology. Research Article Cite this article: Reager, M.L. , Mitharwal, B.S., Kumar, U. , & Dotaniya, C.K. (2020). Productivity and Sustainability Enhancement of Moth Bean through Improved Technology of CFLD under Hyper Arid Partially Irrigated Zone of Rajasthan, Ind. J. Pure App. Biosci. 8(2), 403-409. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.18782/2582-2845.8069 Reager et al. Ind. J. Pure App. Biosci. (2020) 8(2), 403-409 ISSN: 2582 – 2845 Copyright © March-April, 2020; IJPAB 404 Moth bean [Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal] is a hot weather, drought resistant legume having ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, considered important components of cropping systems produce reasonable yields with low inputs under harsh climatic and soil conditions of Rajasthan. The densely matted branches grow horizontally and have deeply notched leaflets on long leaf branches. It helps greatly in the conservation of soil, water and serves as a very efficient and suitable cover crop for checking soil erosion. Above and beyond assured production under harsh and hostile arid environment, the crop conventionally supports dietary requirement of local people to a great extent by offering a range of edible products such as dried seeds, mature and immature green pods vegetable. Traditional preparations of moth bean like dal, kheech, papad, bhujia, mangori, etc. as a part of their food habits also fulfill the nutritional need of local people well, as it contains 22–24 per cent high quality protein along with high amount of essential amino acids particularly lysine and leucine and also certain vitamins (Kumar and Singh, 2001). The production and life support systems in the hot regions are constrained by low and erratic precipitation (100-420 mm/year), extreme temperatures (45°C in peak of summer), high evapotranspiration (1500-2000 mm/year), poor soil fertility and physical conditions. This has resulted in over-exploitation of the resources causing rapid widespread land degradation and decline in productivity. There is productivity stagnation, nutrient water imbalances and increased insect-pest and disease incidence due to prolonged use of this cereal dominated system (Kumar, 2014). The production and productivity of moth bean are very low mainly due to its cultivation in resource poor lands with minimum inputs, non-synchronous maturity and indeterminate growth habit. The lower productivity of this crop is attributed to several factors viz., growing the crop under moisture stress, marginal lands with very low inputs and without pest and disease management, non-availability of high yielding varieties and late sowing. In this context, the cluster front line demonstration is an important method of transferring the latest techniques of practices to farmers by which farmers learn latest technology production factors under real farming situations on their own fields, which in turn may lead to higher adoption of improved package of practices. India government imports large quantity of pulses to fulfill domestic requirement of pulses. In this regard, to sustain this production and consumption system, the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare had sanctioned the project “Cluster Frontline Demonstrations on kharif pulses from 2016’’ to ICAR-ATARI, Jodhpur through National Food Security Mission. The basic strategy of the Mission is to promote and extend improved crop management practices and innovative technology, i.e., quality seed, micro-nutrients, soil amendments, weed management, integrated pest management, irrigation scheduling along with capacity building of farmers. This project was implemented by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, BikanerI of Zone-II, as grass root level organization meant for application of technology through assessment, refinement and demonstration of proven technologies under different micro farming situation in district. While, demonstrating the technologies at the farmers field, the analysis of the technology gap will help to strengthen the research. Cluster front line demonstrations conducted in cluster of ten hectares of land in order to have better impact of the demonstrated technology on the farmers and field level extension functionaries with full package of practices. Keeping in view, the present study was done to analyze the productivity and sustainability enhancement of moth bean through improved technology of CFLD under hyper arid partially irrigated zone of Rajasthan. MATERIALS AND METHODS The field experiments were conducted at three clusters (Cluster-I, II & III) of 25 farmers during kharif seasons of 2016 and one Reager et al. Ind. J. Pure App. Biosci. (2020) 8(2), 403-409 ISSN: 2582 – 2845 Copyright © March-April, 2020; IJPAB 405 (Cluster-I) during 2019 in four respective adopted villages (Benisar, Bhojas, Husangsar and Dasuri) of Bikaner district of Rajasthan under cluster frontline demonstration (CFLD) of National Food Security Mission (NFSM), to evaluate economic feasibility and sustainability of improved technology in moth bean. Demonstration was conducted at farmers’ field having an area of 0.4 hectare each for improved and farmers practices. The package of improved technologies like line sowing, nutrient management, seed treatment and whole package were used in the demonstrations. The test variety was RMO257 in demonstration plots. Before conducting CFLDs, a list of farmers was prepared from group meeting and specific skill training was given to the selected farmers regarding package of practices. The improved technology demonstration included high yielding varieties, seed treatment, timely sowing, fertilizer management, plant protection measures and irrigation management. The sowing was done in the month of July. The spacing was 30x10 cm apart and the seed rate of moth bean was 12 kg ha -1 . The fertilizers were given as per soil testing value, however, the average recommended dose of fertilizer applied in the demonstration plots was 20 kg N, 32 kg P2O5 and 40 kg K2O per hectare. The NPK fertilizers were applied through Urea, SSP & MOP respectively, at the time of sowing. Two sprays of FeSo4 and ZnSo4 were done to mitigate deficiency occurring during growth period of crop. Soils under study were loamy sand in texture with a pH range of 8.1 to 8.6. The soils poor in available nitrogen, medium in phosphorous and potassium varied between 250-260, 15-19 and 225-230 kg ha -1 , respectively. However, the soils were deficient in micro nutrients particularly, zinc and ferrous. In demonstration plots, critical inputs in the form of quality seeds of improved varieties, micronutrient fertilization, herbicide, timely sowing, and need based of pesticides as well as irrigation time were emphasized by the KVK and comparison has been made with the existing practices (Table 1). The traditional practices were maintained in case of local check. The data output were collected from both CFLD as well as control plots and finally the extension gap, technology gap, technology index along with the incremental benefit cost ratio were calculated as suggested by Raj et al. (2013). Data were recorded at harvest from each demonstration and farmers practice plots. These recorded data were computed and analyzed for different parameters using following formulae suggested by Yadav et al. (2004). Extension Gap= Demonstration yield Farmers practice yield Technology Gap= Potential yield Demonstration yield Technology Index= (Potential yield Demonstration yield) / Potential yield x 100 Additional cost = Demonstration cost – Farmers practice cost Effective gain = Additional returns – Additional cost Additional returns = Demonstration returns – Farmers practice returns Incremental B: C ratio = Additional returns / Additional