Effective management practices for enhancing castor (Ricinus communis) productivity in dryland agriculture

A field experiment was conducted during rainy (kharif) season of 2016, 2017 and 2018 at Centre for Natural Resources Management, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, to study the effect of land configurations and mulching on productivity and rainwater-use efficiency of castor (Ricinus communis L.). The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with 4 replications in loamy sand soil, having goodinfiltration capacity. The treatment comprised, viz. control (conventional method), raised-bed method, ridge and furrow method, ditch method, conventional method with castor-shell mulch, conventional method with plastic mulch, raised-bed with castor-shell mulch, raised bed with plastic mulch, ridge and furrow method with castor-shell mulch, ridge and furrow method with plastic mulch, ditch method with castor-shell mulch, ditch method with plastic mulch. The results of pooled data of 3 years showed that, the conventional method with plastic mulch resulted in higher seed yield (1,943 kg/ha), followed by ridge and furrow method with castor-shell mulch and conventional method with castor-shell mulch. However, the higher rainwater-use efficiency (3.57 kg/ha-mm of water) was observed in the treatment of raised bed with plastic mulch. The magnitude of increase in seed yield in conventional method with castor-shell mulch over the control was 56.74% on pooled basis. Thus, use of castor-shell mulch or crop-residue as low-priced input in dryland farming may be encouraged for enhanced in-situ moisture conservation, castor-grain yield and rainwater-use efficiency.