Studies on yield limiting meteorological factors for production of rabi pigeon pea in West Bengal

Abstract

Winter pigeon pea can be considered as an alternative to boro rice cultivation particularly in the places where over exploitation of ground water is a potential threat to sustainability. The present experiment was aimed at quantifying the meteorological factors that limit the cultivation of rabi pigeon pea particularly in the upland and medium land condition. The experiment was conducted for three consecutive years during 2003-06 in the University Farm at (BCKV) Kalyani W.B. The treatments comprised different dates of sowing at seven days interval between 20 September and 7 December. The influence of meteorological factors on phenological development and yield was statistically analysed. The results revealed that the length of vegetative phase was inversely correlated to the afternoon vapour pressure deficit, average BSH and diurnal variation in temperature. On the other hand, night temperature and daylength were negatively correlated with the reproductive duration. The regression analysis showed that bright sunny days with high atmospheric vapour demanded not only induced early flowering but they also had suppressed the grain yield. Higher accumulation of GDD and PTU during vegetative phase resulted in higher grain production. On the other hand, the average day temperature, night temperature and day length during reproductive phase had negative correlation with grain yield of pigeon pea. These parameters may be considered as limiting factors for higher production. Besides that, rainfall during March had severely hampered pod formation when sown late.