GROWTH AND YIELD OF WHEAT AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT AGRONOMIC MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at Agronomy Research Field, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 during the period from November 2018 to March 2019 to study the impact of different agronomic management practices on growth and yield of wheat. The experiment comprised of two factors having two varieties (BARI Gom-30 and BARI Gom-32) in the main plots and seven agronomic management practices (no management, no fertilizer, no weeding, no irrigation, no thinning, no pesticides and complete management) in the sub-plots. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three replications. Significant variation was recorded for fertilizer, weeding, irrigation, thinning and pest management on growth and different yield contributing characters and yield of wheat. The maximum plant height (71.98 cm), no. of tillers meter -1 (70.83), no. of leaves plant -1 (15.17), length of leaf (16.24 cm), breadth of leaf (1.46 cm), leaf area index (2.10), dry weight (108.59 g), SPAD value (46.63), length of flag leaf (16.54 cm), length of pedicel (16.67 cm), effective tiller number meter -1 (74.00), spike length (15.22 cm), no. of spikelets spike (15.17), no. of grains spike -1 (40.33), 1000-grain weight (50.66 g), grain yield (1.78 t ha ), straw yield (2.14 t ha -1 ), biological yield (3.92 t ha -1 ), harvest index (45.40%) and shelling percentage (83.53%) were recorded from M 7 (complete management) and also maximum weed dry weight (43.05 g) and maturity days (107.17 days) were recorded from M 3 (no weeding) and M 6 (no pest management), respectively. While the minimum plant height (48.96 cm), no. of tillers meter -1 (40.33), no. of leaves plant (7.33), length of leaf (8.14 cm), breadth of leaf (1.06 cm), leaf area index (0.19), dry weight (23.06 g), SPAD value (46.63), length of flag leaf (8.23 cm), length of pedicel (8.19 cm), effective tiller number meter -1 -1 (39.00), spike length (10.87 cm), no. of spikelets spike

(8.50), no. of grains spike -1 1 ), straw yield (0.77 t ha -1 (15.17), 1000-grain weight (36.73 g), grain yield (0.39 t ha ), biological yield (1.16 t ha -1 ), harvest index (33.74%), dry weight of weed (4.27 g) and shelling percentage (76.08%) were recorded from M 1 (no management) and also minimum maturity duration (98.17 days) were recorded in M 4

(no irrigation). All the above-mentioned growth and yield contributing characters of wheat were found maximum in BARI Gom-30 compared to the BARI Gom-32 and further the higher plant height (76.01 cm), grain yield (1.88 t ha -1 ), biological yield (4.10 t ha -1 ), 1000-grain weight (51.40 g) and harvest index (45.87%) were recorded in V 1 M 7 (BARI Gom-30 with complete management) compared to V 2 M 7 (BARI Gom-32 with complete management). Irrespective of variety, no management practices reduced 78% grain yield of wheat that followed by 70% for no irrigation, 33% for no fertilizer, 19% for no weeding, 14% for no thinning and 10% for no pesticide application compared to complete management.