B. K. Kandpal

Advances in Agronomic Management of Indian Mustard (Brassica juncea (L.) Czernj. Cosson): An Overview

India is the fourth largest oilseed economy in the world. Among the seven edible oilseeds cultivated in India, rapeseed-mustard contributes 28.6% in the total oilseeds production and ranks second after groundnut sharing 27.8% in the India’s oilseed economy. The mustard growing areas in India are experiencing the vast diversity in the agro climatic conditions and different species of rapeseed-mustard are grown in some or other part of the country. Under marginal resource situation, cultivation of rapeseed-mustard becomes less remunerative to the farmers. This results in a big gap between requirement and production of mustard in India. Therefore site-specific nutrient management through soil-test recommendation based should be adopted to improve upon the existing yield levels obtained at farmers field. Effective management of natural resources, integrated approach to plant-water, nutrient and pest management and extension of rapeseed-mustard cultivation to newer areas under different cropping systems will play a key role in further increasing and stabilizing the productivity and production of rapeseed-mustard. The paper reviews the advances in proper land and seedbed preparation, optimum seed and sowing, planting technique, crop geometry, plant canopy, appropriate cropping system, integrated nutrient management and so forth to meet the ever growing demand of oil in the country and to realize the goal of production of 24 million tonnes of oilseed by 2020 AD through these advanced management techniques.

Phytoremediation Mechanism in Indian Mustard ( Brassica juncea ) and Its Enhancement Through Agronomic Interventions

The increasing heavy metal pollution in the agro-ecosystem has become a serious concern worldwide. These metals do not decay in the nature and become toxic to the plants, animals and human beings when exceed specific thresholds. Anthropogenic input of heavy metals in agricultural land includes industrial and agricultural disposal, waste incineration and urban effluent of wastewater. Phytoremediation, by using metal-accumulating plants like Brassica sp., including Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) for toxic metal removal from soil has been proposed as a possible solution to this problem. Phytoremediation is a cost effective and nondestructive, but the challenges in the fast extraction of heavy metals by Indian mustard include initial slow growth, ability to extract some particular metal only, poor bioavailability of heavy metals in soils and non-compartmentalization within plant parts. Addition of organic matter, organic chelates, soil amendments, adoption of suitable cropping systems, intercrops and fertilizer selection can enhance the phytoremediation capacity of Indian mustard. Growing Indian mustard with these agronomic interventions can augment the ability to absorb, uptake and concentrate heavy metal under contaminating soils.

Sustaining higher mustard productivity through conservation agriculture in semi-arid regions of India

The field experiments were conducted at Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (DRMR), Bharatpur, India to evaluate the effect of crop establishment methods on crop productivity, soil properties and economics of mustard in a cropping system mode. Conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT), zero tillage (ZT) and permanent furrow irrigated raised beds (FIRB) were tested for five mustard-based cropping systems viz., fallow-mustard, green manure-mustard, brown manure-mustard, clusterbean-mustard and pearl millet-mustard in split-plot design replicated thrice. The seed, stover, total biological yields, sustainability indices and economics of mustard were significantly influenced by various crop establishment methods and cropping systems. Soil carbon footprints and bulk density of semi-arid regions improved under conservation agriculture. The average increase in the seed yield of mustard after four years of the experimentation was 32.4 and 20.7%, respectively, under FIRB and ZT. The highest sustainability yield index (0.85) and production efficiency (16.01 kg/ha/day) were also observed under FIRB. An increase of 1.30 g/kg and 2.57 Mg/ha in soil organic carbon and mass of soil organic carbon, respectively, was recorded in ZT over CT. The highest mustard yield was obtained under green manure-mustard cropping system (2549 kg/ha) followed by clusterbean-mustard system (2348 kg/ha). The net returns, profitability and B: C ratio were recorded highest with FIRB and green manure-mustard cropping systems.

Improving Nutrient Use Efficiency in Oilseeds Brassica

The food and edible oil demand is increasing continuously and is expected to be doubled by 2050, while the production system and natural resources are continuously deteriorating. In this context enhancing nutrient use efficiency is the need of the hour for increasing crop productivity and reducing the nutrient waste, which is very high presently. The efficiency means the ability of a system to convert inputs into preferred outputs or to minimize input requirement losses. Enhancement of nutrient use efficiency (NUE) by plants could lessen fertilizer input, reduce the nutrient losses, and boost up the crop productivity. There is scope to increase the mustard productivity up to 2,000.0 kg/ha, from present national average of 1,145 kg/ha enhancing input use efficiency in which fertilizers nutrient sources have great role to play. Nutrient use efficiency enhancement is prerequisite not only for primary nutrients but also for secondary and micronutrients for oilseeds Brassica. Mustard, in general, is very sensitive to micronutrient deficiency, specially zinc and boron. The response of various ideotype to the applied micronutrients varies considerably. The precise information of the bio-physiological mechanism for adaptation to nutrient stress will help in enhancing NUE at plant level. It is important to exploit the potential of organic manures, composts, crop residues, agricultural wastes, bio-fertilizers, and their synergistic effect in combination with chemical fertilizers. This is needed for improving balanced nutrient supply and their use efficiency for increasing productivity, sustainability of agriculture, and soil health. INM improves the nutrient uptake by mustard and hence enhances the use efficiency of various nutrients from the soil.