EFFECT OF IRRIGATION REGIMES AND NITROGEN LEVELS ON PRODUCTIVITY OF SUMMER SESAME (SESAMUM INDICUM L.)

during summer season of 2006 in new alluvial zone, with typical alluvial sandy loam soil to study the effect of irrigation and nitrogen levels on oil content, oil and seed yield of summer sesame. The experiment was laid out with four levels of irrigation and three levels of nitrogen in split plot design having three replications. The results of the experiment showed that branching, flower initiation and capsule formation stages of the crop were the most critical for application of irrigation followed by flower initiation and capsule formation. The experimental result indicated that application of 80 kg N ha-1 produced maximum seed yield. The increased seed yield by 17.06 % and 24.98 % with application of 40 kg N ha-1 and 80 kg N ha-1 respectively over control. On the other hand, three irrigations applied one each at branching, flower initiation and capsule formation stages recorded maximum oil yield (355.57 kg ha-1). This treatment was found superior to other levels of irrigations