Growth parameters, yield attributing characters and economics of different HYVs of Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) in the upland of Tripura

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in January 2023 at the upland farm of the College of Agriculture, Lembucherra, West Tripura, to evaluate the performance of ten different high-yielding varieties of foxtail millet (Setaria italic L.) under upland conditions. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of 10 varieties viz., IIM-FXM-4 (V1), Prasad (V2), Garuda (V3), GPUF-4 (V4), GPUF-3 (V5), Fingu (Local) (V6), Black (Local) (V7), SiA-4200 (V8), SiA-3159 (V9), SiA-3156 (V10)with plot size of 4.5m x 3.0m and 100-50-50 NPK kg ha-1 recommendation of fertilizer dose.Results of the experiment showed that among the varieties GPUF-3 recorded significantly highest values of plant height (135.33 cm), number of tillers plant-1 (8.50), dry matter accumulation (14.76 g) in all the growth stages of foxtail millet during the year of experimentation. GPUF-3 recorded superior yield attributes namely number of ears plant-1 (4.47), number of grains ear head-1 (1418.62), grain weight ear head-1 (4.97), length of ear head (21.33 cm) and 1000 seed weight (3.63 g) which ultimately produce higher seed yield (2245.81 kg ha-1) stover yield (4215.02 kg ha-1) during the year of experiment.From the economic point of view GPUF-3 fetched higher in terms of gross return, net return and B:C ratio due to higher seed yield.