Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Author(s):
Rahul Kumar Jaiswal, SK Jha, DK Chandrakar and Anjali Patel

Abstract:
A field experiment was laid out during the winter season of 2019 at 2020-21 and 2021-22 at Instructional cum Research Farm, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh to study the effect of cutting management practices on growth and yield of different berseem varieties. The experiment comprised five varieties viz., JB-1, JB-5, BB-2, BB-3 and Wardan and four cutting management practices viz., one cut at 60 DAS + seed (last cut at 15^th January), two cut at 60 and 90 DAS + seed (last cut at 15^th February), three cut at 60, 90 and 120 DAS + seed (last cut at 15^th March) and no cut seed to seed were arranged in split plot design and replicated trice. The result showed that various growth parameters like dry weight of plant, number of tillers plant^-1 and number of nodules plant^-1found higher in variety JB-1, while some parameter viz., fresh weight of plant and leaf: stem ratio were found to be best in variety JB-5. Growth parameters viz., plant height, number of leaves plant^-1 were found to be performed best in no cut treatment, fresh and dry weight were recorded higher under one cut while number of tillers plant^-1 and number of nodules plant^-1 were found superior with two cut treatment. Most of the yield parameters were found to be performed as best in variety JB-1 and when crop is grown only for seed purpose. Significantly the highest total green fodder yield (243.9 q ha^-1), seed (4.83 q ha^-1) and straw yield (47.10 q ha^-1) was recorded with variety JB-1 over other varieties. Regarding number of cuts the highest total green fodder yield (384.0 q ha^-1) was produced from three fodder cut along with seed production while the seed (6.94 q ha^-1) and straw yields (69.47 q ha^-1) were recorded the maximum under no cut, where only seed production was taken. The highest fodder yield (392.4 q ha^-1) was produced from the combination of berseem variety Wardan X three cut while the seed (7.36 q ha^-1) and straw yields (69.47 q ha^-1) of berseem were produced from the variety JB-1 when no cut was made for fodder.