Short duration crop varieties suitable for late sowings

Pulse and oilseed crops are predominantly grown under rainfed conditions. Increasing frequency of rainfall changes leading to early, mid and late season droughts is affecting the production of these crops grown under resource constrained situations with consequent effect on livelihoods of poor farmers. In interior villages of Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, farmers still cultivate local varieties of pulse crops that are susceptible to viral diseases which are triggered by insect vectors under drought like situations. The productivity of these local cultivars is low and often crop failures are experienced either due to rainfall extremes or disease occurrence. Improved high yielding short duration varieties along with proper management practices are to be introduced and promoted so as to improve the resilience of farming in the drought prone areas.

Resilient practice / technology

Short duration variety of green gram (TARM-1) of 60-65 days duration tolerant to yellow vein mosaic disease was introduced in Ganjam, Odisha. Similarly, K-851 a short duration variety of green gram (65-70 days), was demonstrated in Jharsuguda, Odisha. In black gram, Azad Urd-1, a high yielding and YMV resistant short duration variety (65 days) was demonstrated on 50 ha in Kanti village, Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh. Rajkot district in Gujarat receives low and erratic rainfall resulting in delayed onset of monsoon and mid season droughts in July and August. Due to this, sometimes traditional groundnut varieties (spreading type) cannot be taken up for sowing in July. Instead farmers in Magharwada village adopted bunch type variety of groundnut (GG-5) which is a short duration, high yielding that performs better under late planted conditions. In Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kota district of Rajasthan, soybean is an important crop with a large acerage under JS-335 variety. In recent years, due to delay in onset of monsoon, planting of soybean is extending to July first fortnight and the crop at maturity stage is vulnerable to late season dry spells. Farmers in NICRA villages adopted short duration variety JS-93-05 in Maharashtra, and JS-95-60 (85-95 days) in Madhya Pradesh and Kota, Rajasthan as against the traditional variety (105-110 days).

Impact of short duration varieties

Pradeep Sahu of Chopara village, Ganjam district, Odisha adopted short duration green gram variety TARM-1 and realized an yield of 7.8 q/ha with an additional income of Rs.5400/ha compared to local cultivars despite facing water shortages during crop growth. Twenty farmers who adopted GG-5 groundnut variety in Magharwada village, Rajkot, Gujarat in about 8 ha area realized an average yield of 11.3 q/ha with an yield advantage of 10% compared to the traditional variety despite late planting. Short duration soybean varieties performed better at Amravati during the drought season of 2012, matured early in about 87-93 days and escaped terminal moisture stress.

Scope for upscaling

Short duration soybean variety JS-95-60 has been widely adopted in about 15000 ha in Datia, Madhya Pradesh as an outcome of the varietal performance in NICRA village. Short duration varieties of pulse and oilseed crops need to be included in the seed supply chain for making them available under NFSM.

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