Groundnut (Archis hypogea L.):

A) Crop Botany:

It belongs to family Fabaceae.

B) Agro-meteorology:

i) Climate: It is warm climate crop. 25°C temperature is required for germination. It can be successfully grown in area where 250-300 mm rainfall during April-September.

ii) Soil: well drained, coarse textured and sandy loam soil. Clay soil may result in crust formation and the pegs may not be able to penetrate into the soil for fruiting. pH ranges from 6-6.5.

C) Economic Importance:

Groundnut is very important cash crop of Kharif season in arid zone. Groundnut seed has 44-56% good quality edible oil and 22 to 30% protein content. If its vegetable oil is used so it will have positive impact on country’s economy. In order to fulfill the country need lot of money is spending to import vegetable oil. Average production is 1067kg/ha, total area under production is 97500 ha and total production is 104,000 tons.

D) Production Technology:  

1) Seed bed preparation: Deep tillage with Moldboard Plough in early to mid-February. This operation preserves the moisture from subsequent rains. Moldboard plough should be followed by disc or harrow to level and pack the soil.

2) Sowing time: It is Kharif season crop. 25°C or more temperature is required for germination. So the best time for sowing is March to April but it can be planted in May and June after Wheat Harvesting. Optimum Planting time in Punjab is April and in Sindh is May. In irrigated conditions it is planted in early March and harvested in August.

3) Seed rate: Spreading and semi spreading types: 75- 80kg/ ha.

Bunch and semi bunch type: 95-100 kg/ ha.

Seed inoculation is done before planting with efficient rhizobium strain to obtain higher yield.

4) Sowing method: In barani areas: Line sowing with Pora or drill. Seed should be at the depth of 2-3 inch. Row to row distance is 11/2 feet and plant to plant distance should be 6-8 inches. Broadcasting should never be done to sow groundnut.

For Bunch, Semi Bunch varieties:

R x R 45cm         P x P 10 cm

On sandy soils (in low rainfall zones) plant to plant spacing should be increased to 15cm.

For spacing and semi spreading type varieties:

R x R 60cm          P x P 10 cm

In sandy soils or medium to low rainfall zones, plant spacing with rows should be 15cm.

5) Fertilizer:

Organic Fertilizers: FYM should be applied about one month before sowing and incorporated properly in the soil.

Chemical Fertilizers: N : P : K

                                  30: 80 : 30 kg/ha

If soil is more sandy, 40kg/ ha is recommended. As it is leguminous crop it produces 80% nitrogen from atmosphere. Chemical fertilizers are applied before drilling.

Gypsum 400-500 kg/ha just at beginning time of monsoon season. In more sandy soils higher rates of gypsum are required due to increased leaching. Calcium is needed by the peanuts to ensure well-filled pods, reduce pod rots caused by imbalances of other nutrients.

6) Irrigation: It requires 6 irrigations:

Rouni irrigation

First irrigation 3 to 4 weeks of sowing

2nd at flowering

3rd at peg formation

4th at pod development

5th about one month before digging.

E) Plant protection measures:

i)  Weeds: chemical control Fusilade (Fluazifop P-Butyl) a selective (post emergence herbicide) @1-2 litter/ha

ii) Insect-pests: termites, cutworm, aphid, chrotogonous, thrips, jassid and red hairy caterpillar.

iii) Diseases: Early leaf spot lesions, blight, stem rot, wilt, peanut bud necrosis, peanut clump virus, leaf spot and fungal attack.

9) Harvesting and Storage: early digging results in lower maturity and lower yield. Late digging results in more leftover losses in the soils and high digging cost due to dry and hard soil. Manual threshing for this purpose, a PTO driven FMI thresher, commercially available.

Varieties:

BARI-2000 (semi bunch)

BARD-479 (semi spreading)

GOLDEN (semi bunch)

Late planting after wheat

Chakori (bunch)

BARI-89 (spreading)

Swat Phali (bunch)

Drying and Curing:

Sun drying for about 6-8 days to maintain the desirable flavor and quality. At the time of digging, pods contain about 40-50% moisture which should be reduced to 8 to 10% by curing for safe storage. Dried peanuts should not exceed 10% moisture content in storage or molds and fungi may develop.

Uses:

its high oil content 44-56%, protein content 22-30% after extraction of oil it is fed to livestock. The nutty nut is used in preparing vegetable dishes. The seed is used in bakery products. Roasted seed is used in nimko mix. Peanut oil is used for making soaps, cosmetics and lubricants. Being a leguminous plant, nitrogen is fixed by bacteria in root nodules. Cooking agent, paint, varnishes, lubricating oil, soap, furniture polish etc. It also contains vitamin E and vita. B complex.

Rapeseed and mustard

 

Botanical description

            Commonly this crop is known as sarson, but technically there are different types the most common types grown in Pakistan are Brassica compestris, B napus, B juncea, and Erucasativa.

• Kingdom         Plantae
• Phylum            Angiosperms
• Class                Dicots
• Order               Brassicales
• Family             Brassicaceae
• Genus              Brassica
•  Species           Brassica compestris

Morphology of crop

          Rapeseed and mustard is the oilseed crop. Rapeseed and mustard has a tape root system extended up to 1.5 meter in length with extensive lateral branches in the 0-30 cm horizon.

Origin and history

The place of origin of rapeseed and mustard is not definitely known however, its cultivation has been traced to 2000 BC in India china and japan. Wild form of Brassica compestris are found from Western Europe and china which suggest its origin in the Afghan-Pakistan region another center in the Mediterranean region and a secondary center in Turko-Iranian region brassica seed was first used for oil extraction in India.

Economic importance

• Rapeseed is the third most important plant for oil worldwide after soybean and sunflower.
• The world edible oils the world production of edible oil consist of 11.5% rapeseed.
• Rape seed and mustard give edible oil which is used as cooking medium in Pakistan.
• Seed is used as condiment in the preparation of vegetable and curries.
• Split seed (Mohari dal) and oil is used for pickling.
• The leaves of the young plants are used as vegetable.

 

 

 

• Oil cake is fed to cattle.
• Oil content mustard varies from 30 to 48%.
• Oil content of white mustard varies from 25 to 33%.

Soil type

            Soil must be fertile and loamy.

Soil pH

            Soil pH must be ranges from 5.8-6.5.

Temperature requirement

            Rapeseed and mustard usually germinates well in temperature ranges 10oC-20oC.

Seed bed preparation

The soil is ploughed with Mould Bould plough to a depth of about 30 cm followed by a cold crushing and leveling 1, 2 shallow ploughing are then carried out followed by planking.

Seed rate

The seed rate generally depends upon seed size. Generally seed rate of Rapeseed and mustard is 1.5 to 2 kg/ha.

Method of sowing

            Generally the seed is sown by broad casting or by furrow method.

Sowing time

            Mustard plant seeds are planted in 20th Sept. – 15th Oct.

Line spacing

            Line to line 45cm.

            Plant to plant 10-15cm.

Growing stages

Seedlings

The seeds are sown 1 inch deep and approximately 3 to 5 inches. Seedlings usually germinate in soils that have temperature 10oC-20oC.

 

Sprouting

The mustard plant seedlings quickly emerge and sprout four to five weeks after planting.

Flowering

Mustard flower buds emerge five weeks after sprouting and full yellow blooms appear in 7 to 10 days.

Irrigation

Usually 3 to 4 irrigations needed for sarson the first irrigation is applied one month after sowing and subsequent irrigation as about 20 to 30 days interval.

Fertilizer applications

            Rape and mustard response well to the application of organic manure as well as chemical fertilizer. 

N: P : K = 35: 35 : 25 kg/hac

Interculture and weeding

            First hoeing is done when the plants are 6-8 cm tall. 1or 2 hoeing’s are needed hand weeding is an effective method for weed control in this crop.

Intercropping and rotation

In Pakistan rapeseed and mustard is grown as an intercrop or on fellow lands between the major crops.

            Some of the most common existing rotations are:

     Existing rotation

• Rape/mustard – groundnut - wheat
• Rice - rape/mustard - rice
• Wheat – guar - rape/mustard(zaid kharif) - cotton

     Proposed rotation

• rape/mustard - maize - wheat - soybean
• cotton – sunflower – mungbean – rape/mustard

 

Weeds management

Name of weeds         Chemicals                  Dose

• Quack grass                 Trifluralin                    1-2 kg/hac
• Wild mustard              Haloxyfop-R               0.5-1 kg/hac               
• Wild buckwheat          Sethoxydium               0.5-1 kg/hac
• Foxtail                         Lontrel SL                   0.25-0.5 kg/hac

Insect’s management

            Name of insects          Chemicals                    Dose

• Painted bug                 BHC                            5 kg/ha
• Aphids                        Methyl-Parathion        700-1000 ml/ha          

Diseases management

Name of disease          Chemicals                    Dose

• Powdery mildew         Dithane M-45              1-2 kg/ha
• Downy mildew           Benlate                        100-120 gm./ha
• White rust                   Captan                         700 gm./ha

Harvesting

The rapeseed and mustards physiologically mature in 190-200 days of sowing. These crops are usually harvested when about 75% of the pods turn yellowish.it is harvested in march – april.

Moisture content

            When rapeseed and mustards is harvested it has 10-12% moisture content in its seed.

Storage

            It is stored in temperature of 20oC.

Varieties

1. Khanpur raya.
2. RL–18.
3. Peela raya.
4. DGL.
5. Chakwal sarsoon.

 

 

Yield

The average national yield of rape and mustard increased from 569 kg/ha to767kg/ha.