Vol. 12, Issue 9 (2023)

Author(s):
C Rajamanickam, P Arunachalam, C Ravindran, B Muralidharan and A Baskaran

Abstract:
In Ramanathapuram district, mundu chilli is the one of the very important commercial crop which plays a major role and most remunerative crop to small and marginal farmers and fetches income to the household. The adaptation of FLDs, the cultivation practices such as production of portrays nursery seedlings, balanced fertilizer application, installation of traps, spaying of Arka vegetable special, foliar application of neem soap, application of Pseudomonas fluorescens etc. were imposed in the demonstrated plot. The farmers’ practices also included as another techniques for this study. The farmers of Ramanathapuram district were getting low income due to not implemention of recent technologies. With this background, frontline demonstration on yield enhancement of mundu chilli through integrated crop management practices in Ramanathapurm district was conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra during 2017 - 2018. The present study results revealed that demonstrated plot recorded the highest values of traits such as plant height (74.14 cm), number of primary branches per plant (5.20), number of fruits per plant (65.21), fruit length (1.45 cm), fruit girth (4.60 cm), fresh fruit weight (4.96 g), dry fruit weight (2.31 g), fresh fruit yield per plant (290.44 g), dry fruit yield per plant (123..45 g) and dry fruit yield per ha (1.26 t/ha), whereas farmer practices exhibited the lowest values in all the traits viz., plant height (63.25 cm), number of primary branches per plant (4.52), number of fruits per plant (50.10), fresh fruit weight (3.64 g), fruit length (1.21 cm), fruit girth (3.85 cm), dry fruit weight (1.90 g), fresh fruit yield per plant (145.30 g), dry fruit yield per plant (92.30 g) and dry fruit yield per ha (1.12 t/ha). On an average, demonstrated plot registered 14.33 percent yield enhancement over farmers’ practice. Demonstrated plot observed the lowest incidence of anthracnose, wilt, thrips, mites when compared to farmers practice. In the case of cost economic traits, demonstrated plot (FLDs) resulted in higher net returns of Rs.1,43,100 per ha with cost benefit ratio of 2.96 whereas farmers practice noticed the net returns of Rs. 1,12,400/ha and cost benefit ratio of 2.16.