Performance of wheat cultivars at varying fertility levels under system of wheat intensification and conventional method of wheat production system

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2009-10 at Ranchi, Jharkhand to evaluate the performance of wheat cultivars at varying fertility levels under system of wheat intensification and conventional method of cultivation. The morpho-physiological analysis of growth and yield in wheat revealed that system of wheatintensification manifested higher total tillers m-2, leaf area index, dry matter accumulation, crop growth rate, number of spikes m-2, grains per spike and 1000-grain weight resulting in higher grain and straw yield over conventional method of cultivation. The net return and benefit: cost ratio as well as the nutrient uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash was also recorded significantly higher under system of wheat intensification. Higher fertility level of 120 kg N ha-1, 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 and 40 kg K2O ha-1 also significantly improved the plant height, total tillers m-2, leaf area index, dry matter accumulation, crop growth rate, number of spikes m-2, grains per spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield, straw yield, net return, benefit: cost ratio and nutrient uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash. Among the wheat cultivars, K 9107 manifested significant improvement in growth attributes at all the growth stages resulting in significantly higher yield attributes, grain yield, straw yield, net return, benefit: cost ratio and nutrient uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash than Birsa Gehu 3, HUW 468 and K 0307. Thus it can be concluded that the wheat variety K 9107 fertilized with 120 kg N ha-1, 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 and 40 kg K2O ha-1 under System of Wheat Intensification may able to boost up the wheat productivity under irrigated ecosystem of Chhotanagpur plateau region, India