Effect of Foliar Application and Seed Treatment of Decomposer on Growth and Yield of Cumin (Cuminum Cyminum L.) under Saline Condition

Abstract

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) is one of the most valuable rabi crop specially for the arid region farmers but crop faced
many challenges in production is affected by diseases and pest, poor quality of irrigation water and climatic conditions
which are responsible for heavy yield losses. A field study carried out at main research farm of CAZRI-RRS, Pali
district (Rajasthan), during rabi 2017 and 2018 to evaluate the appropriate timing of foliar spray and seed treatment of
decomposer on growth, disease and pest incidence and yield of cumin under saline condition. The experiments were
conducted in RBD design with three replications. Groundwater was used for irrigation throughout the experiment with
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water quality (ECiw>4.6dSm ). T treatment showed significant effect on seed germination, plant height, number of5
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seed umbelle , number of umbellets umbel and 1000 seed weight on the basis of pooled data of 2017 and 2018 but
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no significant effect on secondary branch of plant and number of umbel plant . Seed treatment with three foliar spray of
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decomposer at different stage of plant at 45, 60 and 75 DAS (T ) produced significantly higher seed yield (581.1kg ha )5
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and (659kg ha ) and straw yield (1129kg ha ) and (1472kg ha ) in both the year 2017 and 2018 over the control (T )1
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(341kg ha ) and (419kg ha ) respectively. The highest net return and BC ratio was recorded under the T5 (` 60834 

and 2.2) followed by T (` 56068 ha and 2.1) over the control (T ) (` 19431 ha and 1.4 respectively). Seed treatment4 1
and foliar application of decomposer at 45, 60 and 75 DAS (T ) exhibited higher yield of cumin being at par with rest of5
the treatment with decomposer. However, all the treatments of decomposer were superior over the control.
Keywords: Cumin, foliar spray, salinity, seed treatment, yield