Crop-weather relationship of finger millet varieties under varying environments at Keonjhar, Odisha

Finger millet, scientifically known as Eleusine Coracana, Poaceae family and is often referred to as mandua or ragi in India.The cultivation of finger millet in India spans an area of around 1.19 million hectares, resulting in an output of 1.98 million metric tons and a productivity rate of 1661 kg per hectare (Padmaja et al., 2021).In Odisha, the annual production of finger millet is 30,910 metric tons over 55,000 ha areas, with a productivity rate of 5.62 quintals per hectare (Sial et al., 2022).The adaptability, durability, and greater yields of Odisha's agricultural practices make it popular among tribal people and farmers, particularly on marginal soils without irrigation.The optimal conditions for the crop occur in regions with an annual precipitation range of 700-1200 mm.The crop is not tolerant of excessive rainfall during the grain ripening stages.It thrives in dry conditions and is well-suited for elevations ranging from 1000 to 2000 meters, with an average temperature of 27 0 C. Finger-millet exhibits resilience to three types of stressors: warming stress, water stress, and nutrition stress.This remarkable ability qualifies it as a Climate Change Compliant Crop (CCCC).Agrometeorological information like the maximum and minimum temperature, rainfall, humidity, daylight hours, wind speed, and other environmental conditions regulate most plant biological functions like photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration.Sowing timing is a major non-monetary crop yield factor.The best period to cultivate crops provides a suitable environment during all phenophases.Timely crop sowing produces healthy, strong plants that maximize yield (Bashir et al., 2015).Heat units above the basic temperature accumulate during crop growth from sowing to maturity.Quantified heat units are needed to reach a phenophase (Pradhan et al., 2018).A field experiment was conducted at Experimental Block, Regional Research and Technology Transfer Station, Keonjhar, Odisha, India during the Kharif season for two consecutive years i.e. 2020 and 2021 to find the Crop and weather relationship of Finger millet varieties under various dates of sowing in North Central Plateau Zone of Odisha.The field experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications and two factors, the first one being the dates of sowing (Factor A) and the second one is varieties (Factor B).There were 4 dates of sowing in Factor A (D 1 -20 June, D 2 -30 June, D 3 -10 July , D 4 -20 July) and 3 varieties in factor B (V 1 -Bhairabi , V 2 -Arjuna and V 3 -Kalua.Altogether there were 12 treatment combinations.All the recommended packages and practices were followed.The crop was harvested after reaching maturity in accordance with the varieties time frame, when more than 50% of the plants' ear heads and straw had become brownish in colour.From the net plot of each treatment, the straw and ear heads were separately harvested.Ears were harvested manually.The grain was separated from ears by winnowing then weights were separately recorded.The crop duration of ragi was divided into six phenophases; P 1 -Sowing to germination, P 2 -Germination to vegetative stage, P 3 -Vegetative stage to flowering stage, P 4 -Flowering stage to heading stage, P 5 -Heading stage to grain filling stage, P 6 -Grain filling stage