Productivity and economics of clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) as influenced by phosphorus fertilization and biofertilizers in western Rajasthan

摘要

Clusterbean (Cyamofsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub] commonly known as guar, is an important self pollinated leguminous crop. Clusterbean is drought resistant crop and cultivated mostly in medium textured sandy soil of the arid and semiarid areas. Clusterbean is grown for different purposes, such as vegetables, green fodder, green manure and seed. Its seeds contain 20-32 per cent gum, so clusterbean is the main raw material for gum industries. India produces 80% of total clusterbean produced in the worldand has unique status in the cultivation of clusterbean because of congenial climatic condition for the crop growth. Clusterbean is grown in arid zones of Rajasthan and some parts of Gujarat, Haryana, Pimjab and Madhya Pradesh; together they contributeapproximately 90% of total area and production in India. Total area under the crop in India was around 34.02 lakh hectares with an annual production of 19.71 lakh torms (Anonymous, 2012 a). In Rajasthan, total area under clusterbean was 30.00 lakh hectare with production of 15.46 lakh tonns (Anonymous, 2012 b), contributing 78.43 percent of total production. The productivity of clusterbean in Rajasthan is 515 kg/ha which is far below its potential yield. The low productivity of this crop is mainly due to the limited use of organic and inorganic fertilizers and cultivation of traditional low yielding varieties. The soils of Rajasthan are low in organic matter content and poor in nitrogen and phosphorus. Introduction of an efficient strain of Rhizobium in such soils may help in boosting up production, increased Rhizobia population and consequently more nitrogen fixation. Phosphate solubilizing bacteria change the unavailable phosphorus of soil in to available form. Thus, application of phosphorus and inoculation of seeds with Rhizobium and Phosphate solubilizing bacteria increase nodulation, crop growth, nutrient uptake and crop yield (Srivastava and Ahlawat, 1993). Keeping in view, the present study was undertaken to find out the effect of biofertlizers and phosphorus on clusterbean.