Impact of Crop-specific Technologies and Organic Growth Stimulants on Mustard, Black Gram and Green Gram in Sundarban area of West Bengal

Abstract

The gap between actual and potential crop production can be minimized by maintaining plant health, which needs crop-specific technology interventions. On-farm trials were conducted during 2017-18 and 2018-19 in the farmers’ fields in the Sundarbans to study the impact of crop-specific technologies on crop yields. The yield of mustard can be increased by about 47% with the installation of Apis mellifera bee hives @ 3 ha -1 while it was about 40% in the case of A. cerena type @ 5 ha -1 . A considerable increase (30.17% and 20.90%) in pod setting was recorded via the installation of mellifera bee hive and cerena type, respectively. Spraying of panchagavya @ 5%, sasyagavya @ 5%, and dasaparni @ 1% at 30 days after sowing (DAS) onwards at 15 days intervals, in alternate application with 600 L ha -1 of jeevamrit as soil application at 30 DAS boosted the plant growth attributing characters in black gram. The same treatment recorded the highest yield of blackgram (0.95 t ha -1 ), lowest infestation of pod borer (8.6%) and lowest powdery mildew infestation (21.20%). Application of beejamrit for seed bio-priming and 5% jeevamrit at 30 and 45 DAS as spray and soil application @ 600 L ha -1 also showed potential results with 30% increased yield of black gram over existing farmers’ practices. The integrated approach consisting of the application of Trichoderma viride enriched cow dung @ 750 kg ha -1 , seed treatment with carboxin 17.5% + thiram 17.5% @ 3 mL kg -1 seed, installation of pheromone trap @ 30 ha -1 and need-based spot application of neemastra @ 3% resulted in highest seed yield of greengram (0.94 t ha -1 ) and B:C ratio (3.38) followed by chemical management (0.93 t ha -1 , 3.23).