Impact of irrigation and nitrogen management on crop performance, yield and economics of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) inKandahar region of Afghanistan

In Afghanistan the information on the performance of sorghum crop to applied nitrogen (N) fertilizer coupled with water management are still scarce. Therefore, a field study was carried out during rainy (kharif) season of 2020 at the research farm of Afghanistan National Agricultural Science and Technology University, Kandahar, Afghanistan. Kandahar in collaboration with ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi evaluated the effect of different irrigation scheduling and nitrogen management options on growth, yield and economics of sorghum. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with 3 replications consisting of 3 irrigation schedules in main-plots and 4-N rates in sub-plots. Growth parameters of sorghum, viz. plant height, dry matter accumulation, crop growth rate and leaf area index were significantly increased by N120 and N80 compared to N0 plots. Significantly superior yields, viz. seed yield (1546 and 1476 kg/ha), straw yield (5546 and 5467 kg/ha), biological yield (7092 and 6943 kg/ha) and harvest index (21.3 and 21.8%) were observed with N120 and N80 plots, respectively. The N120 and N80 plots remained at par with each other with respect to net B:C ratio (1.87). However, the highest production efficiency (14.7 kg biomass/day) and monetary efficiency (773.90 AFN/day) was obtained with N120 plots. Therefore, the findings of present study suggest that N application @80 kg/ha could be a viable option to attain higher productivity, farm profitability and input-use efficiency irrespective of 2 or 3 irrigations in sorghum in Kandahar region of Afghanistan.