EFFECT OF ICM PRACTICES ON YIELD AND ECONOMICS IN TOMATO (LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM MILL.)Ullangula Sravanthi, Rajeshwar Malavath, Shivakrishna Kota, Nagaraju Alugoju, Thirupathi Islavath and Sathish Kumar BollaveniAbstract The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of integrated crop management practices on yield and economics of tomato at farmerâs field of Mancherial district, Telangana state during the year from 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. The farming area available for the production of tomato across India during the financial year 2022 is estimated to have amounted to 841 thousand hectares. The treatments consist of farmer practice (T1) with application of RDF (180: 100: 60 kg NPK ha-1) and direct sowing in the field and T2 consists of raising of seedlings by nursery, installation of yellow sticky traps @ 25 ha-1, staking of plants, marigold grown as trap crop (tomato 16 rows: marigold 1 row) and spraying of need-based chemicals along with application of RDF (180: 100: 60 kg NPK ha-1). The results revealed that the total percent yield gap between potential yield and actual yield of tomato was 52.94 percent, in which 10.38 percent of yield gap between demonstration plot and actual farmers plot yield and 42.56 percent of technological gap. The data (T2) showed that highest yield recorded (34.46 t ha-1) in comparison to farmer practice (25.54 t ha-1) (T1), high net prot (T2) over (T1) with BC Ratio 1.56 (T2) and 1.42 (T1). The experiment showed that the number of fruits, fruit weight and marketable yield were highest in T2 (ICM practices) over T1 (application of RDF: 180: 100: 60 kg NPK ha-1). The adoption of ICM practices shows positive impact on yield (34.46 t ha-1) and economics of tomato through adoption of ICM practices and also decreased the incidence of physiological disorders (blotchy ripening, sun-scalding) and pest-disease incidence (fruit borer and blight infestation). |