Field Day on new drought tolerant varieties of groundnut A field day programme on groundnut was organized on 9th December 2013 in Chinnadevanpatti village, Kadavur block, Karur district in farmer’s field in which two drought tolerant varieties were assessed for their performance during the kharif season by Saraswathi Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Puzhutheri as part of their Technology assessment programme. The programme was participated by the Assistant Director of Agriculture Mrs Jayanthi, her team of officials, progressive farmers and KVK Scientists. The farmers observed the performance of the groundnut varieties ICGV 91114 developed by International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad as well as Kadiri 9 developed by Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University and informed that the number of pods per plant ranged between 30 – 40 in both the varieties. The farmers felt that both the varieties can be grown in Karur district. However, Kadiri 9 tolerant to insects pests and diseases had better haulm yield which can meet the fodder requirement of farmers. During the interaction session, the trial farmer Shri Thangavel, who is also a President of a Farmers club supported by NABARD and KVK shared his cultivation experiences. He had adopted ecological methods of cultivation such as sheep penning, vermicompost application, use of biofertilizers, biocontrol agent Trichoderma against seed and soil borne diseases and gypsum for better pod filling. He had provided only supplementary irrigation to raise the crop. He also noted that since inorganic fertilizers have not been used, there was not much problem of pests. He also highlighted that he has got equivalent yield to that of the rabi crop in kharif season itself using these new varieties.

The Assistant Director of Agriculture informed that these varieties can be taken up under seed production programmes of the Department and farmers can get incentives for seed production. Further there is a need for good quality seeds for better productivity. The Programme Coordinator Dr. J. Diraviam in his address stressed the need for replacement of the prevailing TMV 7 groundnut variety with alternate varieties and the KVK has been taking up trials for the past five years among farmers for identifying suitable varieties. Further Integrated Crop Management is very important to achieve the production potential of groundnut crop and frontline demonstrations are also being organized in the current year for the Rabi crop. He also informed that ICGV 91114 groundnut variety is popular among Andhra farmers. The field day programme was organized by Mr M. Thirumurugan, SMS (Agronomy) and Mrs P. Tamil Selvi, SMS (Agrl. Extension).