Study on yield sustainability and water productivity of groundnut on farmers' fields through improved technology under hyper arid partially irrigated zone of Rajasthan

Groundnut is an important kharif crop in Rajasthan and occupies important position among state crop list. However, a vast yield gap exists between potential yield and the actual yield obtained due to partial adoption of recommended package of practices by the farmers. The technology gap is a major concern in achieving optimum and sustained production. Considering the facts, present study aimed to study the effect of adaptation of improved technologies in groundnut production, water productivity and sustainability in arid zone of Rajasthan. Field experiment of groundnut was carried out during four consecutive years 2016 to 2019 on farmer's field of Bikaner districts under cluster frontline demonstrations to assess the impact of improved technologies on yield sustainability, water productivity and economics of groundnut crop. The two treatments evaluated at 25 farmer's field were a) improved technologies i.e. high yielding varieties, seed treatment, timely sowing, optimum plant population, recommended fertilizer management, plant protection measures and irrigation management and b) farmers practice. The groundnut yield, water productivity, sustainability indices, economic returns and benefit to cost ratio of both the systems was compared using appropriate standard statistical procedure. The results of the present field experiment revealed that, the improved practices gave higher and sustainable yield of groundnut over years compared to farmers practice. The mean pod yield recorded (3371 kg ha⁻¹) with improved practices was 24.39 per cent higher than farmer's practice (2710 kg ha⁻¹). Similarly, improved practices had higher sustainability yield index (0.63), sustainability value index (0.47), higher water expense efficiency (74.92 kg ha⁻¹ cm⁻¹), gross water productivity (16.58 ? m⁻³), net water productivity (11.89 ?m⁻³) and incremental benefit cost ratio (30.1) over farmers practice.