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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Early Access

Study on growth, yield and radiation interception in finger millet varieties under different dates of sowing

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.10019
Submitted
12 June 2025
Published
10-09-2025
Versions

Abstract

Finger millet yields remain low in rainfed situations due to lack of context regarding optimal sowing time and suitable varieties under the changing climatic conditions. This study addresses the gap by evaluating the performance of finger millet genotypes under varied sowing dates in rainfed conditions. A field experiment was conducted at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore during kharif (July to November) 2023 and 2024. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with factorial concept having three varieties namely MR-6 (V1), KMR-316 (V2) and KMR-630 (V3) and three dates of sowing like, D1- July first fortnight, D2- July second fortnight and D3- August first fortnight. Results revealed that among different varieties, significantly higher leaf area index and dry matter accumulation, grain yield and straw yield were recorded with MR-6 variety in both 2023 and 2024 seasons. While significantly lower growth and yield parameters were obtained with KMR-630. Among dates of sowing, July first fortnight achieved significantly higher grain and straw yield followed by July second fortnight and August first fortnight in pooled analysis. Significantly higher growth attributes were recorded with July first fortnight sowing when compared with other sowing dates in both seasons. Higher light absorption ratio and lower light transmission ratio was observed with MR-6 variety and July first fortnight sowing dates. Higher amount of photosynthetically active radiation was intercepted with MR-6 variety at first date of sowing. Higher amount of radiation was intercepted at flowering stage in all varieties. Intercepted radiation had a positive relationship with dry matter production and leaf area index.

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