Response of niger (Guizotia abyssinica) to different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Instructional-cum-Research (ICR) Farm, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during Rabi seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18 to study the response of niger to different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well as sulphur on growth, yield and oil content of niger. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design with three replications. The treatments comprised of three NPK levels viz., F1 (20-10-10 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1), F2 (25-12.5- 12.5 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1), F3 (30-15-15 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1) and three S levels viz., S1 (no sulphur), S2 (10 kg S ha-1), S3 (20 kg S ha-1). Application of F3 (30-15-15 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1) and S3 (20 kg S ha-1) recorded maximum and significantly higher seed yield (q ha-1), oil content (%), oil yield (q ha-1) as well as growth and yield attributing parameters viz., plant height, number of leaves plant-1, number of branches plant-1, number of capitulum plant-1 and number of seeds capitulum-1 during both the years. Test weight was not influenced significantly during both the years. Interaction effects of NPK (F) and sulphur (S) were found to be not significant in respect of growth and yield attributing characters in both the years. In case of seed yield (q ha-1) and oil yield (q ha-1) interaction effect were found to be significant in both the years.The highest gross return (Rs. 23,905.00 in 2016-17 and Rs. 22,400.00 in 2017-18) and net return (Rs. 11,184.86 in 2016-17 and Rs. 9679.86 in 2017-18) were recorded by F3S3 in both the years. In case of benefit-cost ratio, the higher value (1.88 and 1.76, respectively) was recorded with F3S3 during 2016-17 and 2017-18.