Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

PRODUCTION POTENTIAL AND QUALITY OF JATROPHA (JATROPHA CURCAS L.) AS INFLUENCED BY IRRIGATION SCHEDULES AND FERTILITY LEVELS

Anil Kumar, N.S. Patil and Rakesh Kumar

Abstract

An experiment was conducted for consecutive two years (2009–2010) at seed production farm Achhaliya, ASPEE College of Horticulture and Forestry, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari to study the effect of irrigation schedules and levels of fertilization on yield attributes, yield and quality of jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) under South Gujarat condition. The soil of the experimental plot was clayey in texture and deficient in N and P and medium in K status. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four irrigation scheduling in main plot viz. 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 IW/CPE ratio and four levels of fertilizer application in subplot, i.e. control, 20:40:20; 40:80:40 and 60:120: 60 g NPK/plant and replicated thrice. The yield attributes and yield of jatropha was significantly influenced with irrigation schedule and fertilizers levels. Amongst the irrigation schedules, application of irrigation scheduling of 0.6 IW/CPE ratios produced significantly higher yield attributes viz. no. of inflorescence/branch, no. of fruits/inflorescence, no. of fruit/branch, no. of fruit bearing branch/plant, no. of fruit/plant, fruit yield/plant, test weight (100-seed) Irrigation scheduling of 0.6 IW/CPE ratio recorded markedly higher shell (398 and 540 kg/ha) and seed yield (837.58 and 1147.75 kg/ha) of jatropha during both the years. With respect to fertilization levels, it was found that 60:120:60 g NPK applied/plant recorded significantly higher yield attributes and yield of jatropha. Irrigation schedule 0.6 IW/CPE ratio showed its superiority over rest of the treatments and recorded the highest oil percent (32.34 and 32.72) and oil yield (281 and 391kg/ha) in the year 2009 and 2010, respectively. Similarly, fertilization with 60:120: 60 g NPK/plant recorded significantly highest oil percent (33.73 and 34.42) and oil yield (578 and 654 kg/ha) in the year 2009 and 2010, respectively. Hence, it may be concluded that irrigation scheduling of 0.6 IW/CPE and 60:120: 60 g applied fertilizer NPK/plant proved to be an ideal for obtaining the higher yield and quality for jatropha.