Sungpha P Phom, Lanunola Tzudir, D. Nongmaithem, Rekha Yadav, Noyingthung Kikon and Merentoshi
Abstract
The present study was conducted during the kharif season 2022 at the School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagaland University (NU: SAS) to evaluate the performance and variability for yield and yield contributing characters of finger millet varieties against different dates of sowing under rainfed conditions of Nagaland. The experiment was conducted in Split Plot Design (SPD) with three replications. The treatment combination consisted of three varieties (Simhadri, Bharathi and CO-15) and three dates of sowing (20th June, 30th June and 10th July). The results revealed that finger millet yield and its attributing character were significantly affected by different dates of sowing and varieties. The result showed that the first date of sowing (20th June) recorded the highest growth and yield attributes at all the growth stages. Among the three varieties used, number of tillers plant-1 (2.96) number of green leaves (24.04) and length of finger (7.39 cm) were higher in variety CO-15. However, plant height (93.53cm), dry weight (21.37 g plant-1), LAI (5.02), number of ear heads plant-1 (3.76) and harvest index (34.94) were maximum with the variety Simhadri. The result also revealed that among the varieties, Simhadri recorded the highest straw yield (4641.69 kg ha-1) and grain yield (2506.96 kg ha-1) followed by variety CO-15 (4517.32 kg ha-1, 2347.11 kg ha-1). Among the sowing dates, crop sown on 20th June produced the highest grain yield followed by the 30th June. After a comparative study of different sowing dates and varieties of finger millet, it was found that variety Simhadri sown on 20th June was most suitable followed by variety CO-15.