Abstract

Prioritizing production constraints in India is the need of the hour for enhancing the productivity of groundnut production system under rainfed ecosystem for climate resilience. A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2017 on sandy clay loam soils of wetland farm of S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati campus of Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh. To find out the priority production factors needed under resource constraints in rainfed groundnut. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with eight treatments and replicated thrice. The lowest density and dry weight of weeds were recorded with full package of practices, which was comparable with excluding pest management, protective irrigation, nutrient management, in-situ soil moisture conservation and improved variety from the full package of practices where weed management was taken up in all the above treatments. Significantly, the higher density and dry weight of weeds was recorded with non-adoption of weed management from full package of practices, that was comparable with control. Full package of practices recorded significantly the lowest leaf miner incidence both at 5 and 10 days after spraying, which was however, comparable with treatments involving pest management. The leaf miner incidence recorded with non-adoption of pest management and control was comparable with each other and significantly superior over rest of the treatments tried. Significantly the higher pod, kernel and oil yield in groundnut was recorded with full package of practice, which was however, comparable with excluding protective irrigation, improved variety and pest management from full package of practices. Significantly, the higher yield reduction was observed when nutrient management (-35%) was not applied to groundnut crop followed by weed management (-27%) and in-situ moisture conservation (-21%) over full package of practices. Growing of only improved cultivar without any input (control) recorded significantly the lowest pod, kernel and oil yield in groundnut. The higher gross returns (Rs. 95902/ ha), and net returns (Rs. 56942/ ha) as well as benefit cost ratio (2.46) were recorded with adoption of full package of practices and was comparable with either excluding protective irrigation or improved variety from full package of practices. However, the latter two were in turn comparable with excluding pest management from full package of practices. The study revealed that adopting complete package of practices resulted in the highest pod yield and monetary returns in groundnut.