Productivity Enhancement of Foxtail Millet (Setaria italica L.) through Critical Agronomic Interventions under Southern Agro-Climatic Zone of Andhra Pradesh

A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2016 and 2017 at S.V. Agricultural College farm, Tirupati to study the influence of spacing, nutrient and weed nutrient management practices on growth and yield of foxtail millet. Significant effects were noticed on growth and yield components viz., plant height, number of panicles m-2, weight of the panicle, grain weight panicle-1, grain and straw yield of foxtail millet. Among different plant geometries tried, closer spacing of 20 cm x10 cm registered taller plants, higher number of panicles m-2, higher grain and straw yield, where as the weight of the panicle, grain weight panicle-1 were found to be highest with 30 cm x10 cm. Among the micronutrient management practices, foliar application of ZnSO4@ 0.5% twice at the time of flowering and at grain filling stage along with 100% RDF registered taller plants as well as higher grain yields.Hand weeding at 20 DAS and 30 DAS outperformed other weed management practices. This was followed by pre-emergence application of butachlor @ 1 kg a.i ha-1 with one hand weeding at 30DAS.The study concluded that the closer spacing of 20cmx 10cm, foliar application of ZnSO4 at the time of flowering and 20 days after flowering along with RDF and hand weeding twice at 20 DAS and 30 DAS resulted in higher productivity of foxtail millet.