Yield improvement in groundnut through frontline demonstration under rainfed condition

Groundnut productivity declines under rainfed situation mainly due to the moisture stress at flowering and pod formation stages. Also the lack of knowledge on the availability of drought tolerant varieties, occurrence of nutrient deficiency and incidence of pests and diseases leads to the reduction in pod yield of groundnut. Hence to overcome the problems faced by the groundnut growers frontline demonstrations on integrated crop management in groundnut were conducted in the farmers’ holdings that were compared with the farmers’ practice. The integrated crop management practices comprising introduction of drought tolerant short duration variety, seed treatment, integrated nutrient management and plant protection measures were demonstrated. The results showed that the higher pod yield of 1450 kg/ha in demonstration and the lower yield of 1240 kg/ha was recorded in farmers’ practice. The higher net return of Rs 26063/ha and benefit:cost ratio of 1.81 was realized in demonstration plots compared to farmers’ practice.