M.Sc.

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) is an important food crop next to rice, wheat and maize. The crop is native to Africa. Finger-millet is capable to withstand three stresses such as warming stress, water stress and nutrition stress, so it is called as Climate Change Compliant Crop (CCCC). These attributes combine to make finger millet a suitable crop for ensuring food security in drought prone areas of the countries. The present study was done to estimate the crop weather relationship in finger millet (var : GPU-28) in central zone of Kerala and to identify the ideal date of planting and best crop establishment method during 2018. The field experiment was conducted at experimental field of Instructional Farm, College of Horticulture during the kharif season of 2018. Split plot design was adopted with five dates of planting viz., May 15th, June 1st, June 15th, July 1st and July 15th as the main plot treatments and three planting methods viz., broadcasting, dibbling and transplanting as the sub plot treatments with number of replications as three. Considering the weather observations, the daily observations of weather recorded during the crop period like maximum, minimum and mean temperature, rainfall and relative humidity showed considerable variations especially during the mid-growth period. Heat units like Growing Degree Days (GDD), Heliothermal Units HTU) and Photothermal Units (PTU) were also calculated for the crop growth period. Growth and yield attributes like plant height, dry matter accumulation, number of ear heads, finger number per ear head, finger length, thousand grain weight, grain yield, straw yield, harvest index and the duration of different phenophases were also noted. Growth indices such as crop growth rate and relative growth rate were worked out to analyze the growth and development of the crop. Micrometeorological and weeds observations were also made. Correlation analysis was carried out using the weather parameters, yield and phenological data to estimate the crop weather relationship in finger millet. The results shows that maximum temperature was showing a negative correlation, while relative humidity, vapour pressure deficit and rainfall was showing positive correlation in most of the yield and yield contributing factors. Considering the micro meteorological observations, June 1st planting showed the highest values for both forenoon and afternoon soil temperature. Highest soil moisture was observed in broadcasting method of planting at 15cm depth and it did not show any considerable variations with respect to date of planting. Weed intensity and dry weight was shown higher during the dibbling method of planting. ABSTRACT
Plant height was found to be higher for dibbling method of planting at 60 days after sowing and May 15th planting showed the higher values which was on par with June 15th planting. Dates of planting had significant effect on the dry matter accumulation which showed higher values for June 15th planting which was on par with June 1st planting at harvest in broadcasting method. Crop growth rate showed an increasing trend during the vegetative phases and there after followed a decreasing trend up to harvest, while relative growth rate showed a gradual decreasing trend from mid-growth period. Duration of phenophases was similar for both broadcasting and dibbling method, while transplanting took comparatively more days to attain each stages. Duration also showed a decreasing trend with delay in date of planting. Heat indices like GDD and PTU followed a decreasing trend with delay in date of planting which indicates their positive impact on the growth and yield performance of finger millet. Considering the yield attributes like number of ear heads m-2, it showed higher values for transplanting method in May 15th planting. Finger number per ear head was higher for June 1st planting which was on par with both May 15th and June 15th planting. Highest finger number per ear head was attained for transplanting method which was on par with dibbling method of planting. Finger length showed the highest value in May 15th planting which was on par with June 1st planting. Date of planting showed significant effect on the straw yield as it was higher in May 15th planting and was lower in July 1st planting which was on par with July 15th planting. Harvest index attained higher values for July 1st planting which was on par with July 15th and June 1st planting. Interaction effect of the treatment combination of May 15th planting with transplanting method attained the highest grain yield (2833.3 kg ha-1) compared to other methods. Assessment of cost of cultivation revealed dibbling method showed highest value while it was lowest in broadcasting method. But the B:C ratio was highest in transplanting and the lowest was observed in dibbling method of planting. This revealed that transplanting method not only encourages yield production, but also economically feasible compared to broadcasting and dibbling methods. So the present investigation on the crop weather relationship in finger millet suggested that the positive contribution of various weather and micrometeorological parameters like relative humidity, vapour pressure deficit, rainfall, forenoon and afternoon soil temperature etc. and the reduced maximum temperature and temperature range which increased the production of number of ear heads, finger number per ear head, increased finger length, straw yield etc. This ultimately leads to increased grain yield in May 15th and June 1st date of planting. In case of the three planting methods, studies suggested that transplanting can be considered as best establishment method for finger millet cultivation in central zone of Kerala.