Enhancement in the Productivity of Rabi Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) Under Dryland Condition by Adopting In Situ Moisture Conservation Practices on Farmers Field

The Operational Research project is functioning at Zonal Agricultural Resarch Station, Solapur with one of the objective to demonstrate the impact of in situ moisture conservation techniques viz., ridges and furrow and compartmental bunds under farmers management condition and secondly to popularize the productive technology amongst farmers in the Sarole watershed, Tal. Mohol, Dist. Solapur during the period 2002-03 to 2005-2006. The in situ moisture conservation techniques were adopted on 15 farmers field having plot size 0.20 ha. each treatments during Kharif and Rabi sorghum (M-35-1) was grown as test crop following all recommended practices. The results revealed that, the average grain yield of sorghum was highest in ridges and furrow (9.64 q ha^-1), compartmental bunding (8.24 q ha^-1)as compared to farmers practice i.e., two harrowing. The per cent increase in grain yield was 17 per cent in ridges and furrow over compartmental bunding and 54 per cent over farmers practice. Similar trend was also noticed in case of fodder yield of Rabi sorghum.