Season-wise performance of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) cultivars as influenced by local and foreign strain of Rhizobium inoculation

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during rainy and winter season of 2005 and 2006 in acidic soil (pH: 5.6) of terai region of west Bengal to compare the performance of different groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars in respective seasons as influenced by local and foreign Rhizobium strains. All the cultivars were earlier in germination and days to 50% flowering, and shorter in duration in pre-rainy (kharif) season in comparison to winter (rabi) season. The prekharif season was more suitable in terms of nodulation, growth, yield-attributing characters and yield of all the cultivars of groundnut than rabi season. Among the cultivars, ‘ICGV 95111’ performed better with respect to different growthattributing characters and gave the highest yield which was 21.8 and 23.7% higher over the local check ‘Gangapuri’ in rabi and pre-kharif season, respectively. The overall performance of local strain of Rhizobium was significantly better than the foreign strain in pre- kharif season as well as in rabi season and was superior in nodule formation and pod yield of groundnut. Correlation analysis as well as the multivariate step-wise regression analysis of crop growth rate (CGR), number and weight of nodules/plant with different abiotic factors in both the seasons showed that pre-kharif was more conducive than rabi season for groundnut cultivation in terai agro-climatic region of West Bengal.