Agro-Techniques for Enhancing Wheat Productivity under Dry-land Conditions; An Overview

Wheat, being a most important stable food crop of the world and second most important food crop after rice in India, played vital role in food security of the country. Wheat is grown in India in 6 wheat growing zones, both under irrigated and dry land conditions with a lot of variation in yield. Agronomic practices such as planting pattern, seeding rate, nitrogen (N) application strategy as well as cultivars influences the pattern of use of soil water [1]. Despite sizeable area under dry land condition, production is very low mainly due to lack of proper adaptation of agro-technology. Although, there is sufficient scope to increase the dry land wheat productivity by treating seed with 1% Potassium salts, sowing drought tolerant varieties on or before 20th November in moist zone that gives more yield as compared to delayed sowing. Fertilizer application in the moist zone @ 50, 45 and 30 Kg N, P2O5, K2O ha-1, and one foliar application @ 2 % urea performed best under dry-land condition. Intercropping of dry land wheat with legume and oilseed (4:1) give more wheat equivalent yield over sole wheat. Weed management during (30-45 DAS) critical period of crop-weed competition increase wheat productivity.