Response of long duration pigeonpea (Cajanus Cajan L .) to foliar application of nutrients and insecticides under rainfed condition of Bihar

A field experiment was conducted for three consecutive years during Kharif seasons of 2016-17 to 2018-19 at Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi a campus of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur to study the response of long duration pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) (L.) Millsp to foliar application of nutrients and insecticides under rainfed condition. Foliar application of multi-micronutrient 2 ml/litre + indoxacarb 1 ml/litre at 50% flowering fb profenofos 1 ml/litre 15 days later together with based application of RDF recorded higher number of pods/plant, pod length (5.6 cm), number of grains/pod (212), fruiting efficiency (16.8%) water-use-efficiency (3.5 kg/ha/mm), production efficiency in term of ₹/ha/day (366.7) and kg/ha/day (8.61), grain yield (2286.5 kg/ha), and NPK-uptake by crop and net return (96.83x103₹/ha) but was found at par with foliar application of 1% urea+ 0.25% borax and ZnSO4 at 50% flowering together with basal application of RDF and significantly higher than foliar application of 2% urea, 0.5% borax and 0.5% ZnSO4 at 50% flowering individually together with basal application of RDF and RDF alone. However, significantly higher B:C ratio (3.15) was registered under foliar application of 1% urea + 0.25% borax and ZnSO4 together with RDF. Foliar application of indoxacarb 1ml/litre at 50% flowering fb profenofos 1 ml/litre 15 days later with RDF and foliar application of these insecticides with multi-micronutrient at 50% flowering with RDF significantly reduced the incidence of pod borer and pod fly than other treatments. Plant height, branches/ plant, 100-grain weight, and protein content in grain were unaffected by foliar application of nutrients and insecticides.