AICRP on Kharif Pulses

Crops coordinated

Part of the pulses network

One of the two coordinated projects that replaced the earlier chickpea, pigeonpea, MULLaRP and arid legumes projects. See the AICRP overview for how the network is organised, and AICRP on Rabi Pulses for its rabi-season counterpart.

Integrated nutrient management

• Two sprays of NPK (18:18:18) @ 2% and ZnSO₄·7H₂O @ 0.5%, separately, at pre-flowering and pod initiation in mungbean and urdbean — yield advantage of 11.26% in mungbean and 9.23% in urdbean.
• Nano DAP spray @ 2 ml/l at 25 and 40 days after sowing, in addition to basal application of 100% phosphatic fertilizer, significantly enhanced yield in mungbean.
• RDF (NPK) in pigeonpea can be replaced with FYM @ 4 t/ha along with Trichoderma @ 2.5 kg/ha.
• Agronomic fortification with zinc and iron — RDF plus foliar 0.50% ZnSO₄ + 0.50% FeSO₄ at flowering and pod initiation, recommended across Central, Southern, North East Plain and North West Plain Zones.
• RDF plus nano urea (0.25%) and nano DAP (0.25%) at vegetative, flowering and pod filling stages to boost yield in cowpea.
• Spring and summer urdbean — nano DAP (0.4%) at pre-flowering plus nano urea (0.4%) at pod initiation.

Weed management

• Sodium acifluorfen 16.5% + clodinafop-propargyl 8% EC @ 122.5 g a.i./ha at 15–20 DAS in horsegram — 48.74% yield increase over weedy check.
• Propaquizafop 2.5% + imazethapyr 3.75% w/w ME @ 62.5 g a.i./ha at 15–20 DAS in cluster bean — weed control efficiency of 83.1%.
• Fomesafen 11.03% + fluazifop-p-butyl 5.3% @ 220 g a.i./ha, or propaquizafop 2.5% + imazethapyr 3.75% @ 125 g a.i./ha, at 15–20 DAS in mungbean and urdbean.
• Imazethapyr 10% SL @ 40 g a.i./ha and quizalofop-p-ethyl 10% EC @ 50 g a.i./ha as post-emergence at 15–20 DAS in horsegram.
• Spring and summer mungbean — ready-mix propaquizafop-p-ethyl 2.5% + imazethapyr 3.75% @ 125 g a.i./ha at 15–20 DAS.

Intercropping

• Central Zone and North Eastern Hill Zone — pigeonpea + baby corn (1:2) recorded significantly higher pigeonpea equivalent yield.
• Southern Zone — pigeonpea + sweet corn (1:2) gave high gross returns.

Water management

• Irrigation scheduled at 75% to 100% CPE with 120 × 60 cm spacing recorded significantly higher pigeonpea grain yield.
• Three supplemental irrigations — at 50 DAS, flowering and pod development — registered higher grain yield.

Yield maximization

• Vermicompost or FYM @ 5 t/ha with Pusa hydrogel @ 2.5 kg/ha, followed by foliar 2% KH₂PO₄ at flowering and 2% KNO₃ at pod development, registered higher grain yield and net returns.
• Tank-mix indoxacarb and TNAU pulse wonder @ 5.0 kg/ha, followed by rynaxypyr 15 days later, registered significantly higher grain yield and benefit–cost ratio.

Microbial formulations

• 100% RDF plus seed inoculation with microbial consortia (3–4 ml/kg seed) and soil application @ 5 l/ha mixed with FYM — yield advantage of 25.8% in cluster bean and 40.5% in cowpea.
• 75% RDF plus the same consortia treatment — yield advantage of 15.4% and 25.0% over 100% RDF in cluster bean and cowpea.
• Seed inoculation with LSMR 1 + RB 3 @ 50 g/kg, or locally available Rhizobium + PSB each @ 50 g/kg, increased grain yield of mungbean and urdbean.
• Spring and summer mungbean — NPKZn microbial consortia @ 50 g/kg seed with foliar nano DAP @ 0.4% at flowering and pod initiation, along with 100% RDF.