Effect of irrigation schedules and hydrogel levels on yield and economics of blond psyllium (Plantago ovata)

A field experiment was conducted during the winter (rabi) season of 2018–19 and 2019–20 at Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan to study the effect of hydrogel levels under different irrigation schedules on blond psyllium (Plantago ovata Forssk.). The field experiment was conducted in a split-plot design, comprising of 4 irrigation schedule, viz. irrigation water (IW) : cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) ratio 0.20, 0.30, 0.40 and 0.50 in main plots and 4 hydrogel levels, viz. control, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 kg/ha in subplots, combinedly having 16 treatment combinations, which were replicated 4 times. The results revealed that an application of irrigation at IW : CPE ratio of 0.50 had significant effect on yield attributes, viz. spike length (3.67 cm), seeds/spike (76.05), test weight (1.744 gm) and yield seed (0.767 t/ha), straw (2.609 t/ha) and biological yield (3.376 t/ha) which was at par with IW : CPE ratio 0.40 and both these ratios significantly improved the yield over IW : CPE ratio of 0.30 and 0.20 during both years. Both IW : CPE ratio 0.40 and 0.50 fetched highest net returns of `38,658 and 39,118/ha, with benefit: cost ratio 1.05 and 1.04 respectively. Application of 7.5 kg/ha hydrogel resulted in the highest spike length (3.66 cm), seeds/spike (74.83), test weight (1.766 gm), seed (0.767 t/ha), straw (2.555 t/ha) and biological yield (3.322 t/ha) and was at par with application of 5.0 kg/ha hydrogel and both these levels significantly enhanced blond psyllium crop yield over application of 2.5 kg/ha hydrogel and the control during both the years. Application of hydrogel at 5.0 kg/ha significantly enhanced net returns (`39,281/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (1.06) as compared to application of 2.5 kg/ha hydrogel and the control; however, further increase in hydrogel level to 7.5 kg/ha caused significant reduction net returns (`37,726/ ha) and benefit: cost ratio (0.96) as compared to application of 5.0 kg/ha hydrogel during both years and pooled analysis.