Biswajit Saren, Rajendra Prasad, Vikram Bharati, Hem Chandra Chaudhary, Rajeev Kumar Srivastava and Manoj Kumar
Abstract
A field study was conducted during the rabi season of 2022-23 at the Agricultural Research Farm, TCA, Dholi (Muzaffarpur), part of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), Bihar, India. The study tested different irrigation levels (M1-No irrigation, M2-Irrigation at flower initiation [35 DAS], and M3-Irrigation at flowering [35 DAS] and siliqua formation [65 DAS]) in the main plots, along with various microbial inoculants (S1-MRD 17, S2-MKS 6, S3-Biophos and Biophos+, S4-CRIDA MI-I, S5- CRIDA MI-II, and S6-Control) in the subplots. The study aimed to assess the effects of moisture levels and microbial applications on the growth and yield of Indian mustard, evaluate water-use efficiency, and analyze the economics of different treatments. The results showed that two irrigations at flowering (35 DAS) and siliqua formation (65 DAS) led to better growth, grain yield, oil content, and water-use efficiency, achieving higher gross returns (106159 ha-1), net returns (61104 ha-1), and a B:C ratio of 1.36 compared to other treatments. Among the microbial inoculants, CRIDA MI-II had the best results for growth, yield, and water use efficiency. Economically, CRIDA MI-II also yielded the highest gross return (104525 ha-1), net return (60517 ha-1), and B:C ratio (1.37) compared to the other treatments.