Vol. 12, Issue 2 (2023)

Author(s):
BS Nagaleekara, RH Patil and KG Sumesh

Abstract:
In North Interior Karnataka (NIK) sorghum is grown during both kharif and rabi seasons and CSH-16 is a nationally released hybrid for kharif season. Irrigation is very essential to quantify the difference between potential yield and actual farm yield of a given crop under rainfed conditions so that agronomic adaptations are devised to fill the gap. This plays very important role under rainfed conditions because the yield is often limited by water stress followed by N stress. For this, calibrated and validated DSSAT-CERES was used to run simulations from 1988 to 2018 (31 years) for the kharif sorghum hybrid CSH-16 under potential (no moisture stress) and rainfed conditions on black clay and red loamy soils across 12 districts of NIK. The results showed that average grain yield for NIK in rainfed condition was 2734 kg/ha, with 2272 kg/ha on black clay soil and 3195 kg/ha on red loamy soil. When crop was grown under potential conditions the yield level improved, on average, by 13.0% to 3079 kg/ha, with 2630 kg/ha on black clay soil and 3528 kg/ha on red loamy soil, indicating that there is a scope to improve grain yield of kharif sorghum hybrid CSH-16 in NIK by providing irrigation at critical stages.