Regional Stations

Kukma, Bhuj

The station was established in the year of 1987 as Regional Research Station of the CAZRI. It is located at Kukma, which is 14 km from Bhuj city on the Bhuj � Anjar state highway. The station has a fenced, well-protected research farm of 58.53 ha. area. It also has a farm pond which can store about 22, 000 m3 run off rain water. Office-cum-laboratory building, farm office with vehicle shed are also located on farm.

Soil Type

Water resources

Topography

Agro Ecological Sub Region

Rainfall

Crops

• The major field crops, perennials and orchards growing in the region are as follows.Castor, Clusterbean, Sesame, Groundnut, Moong bean, Moth bean, Minor millets, Mustard, Gram, Amaranths, Ber, Aonla, Mango, Pomegranate, Date palm, Custard apple Sapota, Henna, Sena, Grasses . The most of cultivated areas are under oil seeds and pulses during kharif season.

Vegetation

• Natural vegetation in the district varies with the soil type. The following species are found in the region. Acacia senegal (Kumat), Acacia planifroms (Chatribabool), Prosopis juliflora (Vilayati babool), Avicennia officinalis (Cheria), Prosopis cineraria (Khejari), Balanites aegyptiaca(Hingota), Rhizophora mucronata (Karod), Capparis decidua (Kair), Suaeda fruticosa (Kala lana), Dactyloctenium spp.(Karad), Salvadora oleoides (Meetha Jal), Euphorbia caducifolia (Danda thor), S. persica (Khara Jal), Azadirachta indica (Neem), Ziziphus nummularia (Ber).

Mandate:

Disciplines

Programme

Current activities

• 1. Project code : CAZRI/ T � 04/ RR/ BH � 3 Title: Technology Development for sustainable improvement of wasteland of Bhuj. Duration: 2002 � 2006 ; Principal Investigator � Dr. S. P. Vyas
• 2. Project code : CAZRI/ T � 04/ RR/ BH � 4 Title: Studies on oilseed based cropping systems. Duration: 2002 � 2006 ; Principal Investigator � Dr. S. P. Vyas
• 3. Project code : CAZRI/ T � 02/ RR/ BH � 5 Title: Standardization of Horti-techniques for establishment of fruit crop plantation in arid region of Kachchh. Duration: 2004 � 2007 ; Principal Investigator � Dr. S. L. Meena
• 4. Project code : CAZRI/ T � 02/ RR/ BH � 6 Title: Collection, evaluation and improvement of prominent grasses germplasm of arid region of Gujarat. Duration: 2004 � 2006; Principal Investigator � Dr. S. L. Meena
• 5. Project code : CAZRI/ T � 02/ RR/ BH � 7 Title: Integrated nutrient management in sesame � clusterbean intercropping system under arid condition. Duration: � 2005 � 2007; Principal Investigator � Dr. S. L. Meena

Recent Achievements

1. Arable crops

• Studies on evaluation of pearl millet and brassica varieties indicated that due to varied potential to transport assimilate towards productive site the varieties differed in seed yield. Variety HHB � 97 of pearlmillet and RH � 30 of brassica were found to be better adopted to region.
• Under the condition of terminal drought, initial application of azospirullum improved seed yield and DMP of pearl millet. But the quantum of produce was very less (28.5 to 48.8 kg/ ha seed and 185.5 to 242.8 kg/ha DMP) due to meager rain during experimentation.
• Intercropping of sesame or g. nut between two rows of castor decreased castor yield by 34.9 and 31.8 percent but, gave 125.3 and 143.9 seed yield of sesame or g. nut. The systems castor + sesame and castor + g. nut gave 6.6 and 5.9 percent more economic returns than castor.
• Cropping of sesame and clusterbean in 2:1 ratio along with application of 20 kg/ ha chemical fertilizer urea + 5 tonne FYM provide economically viable system for this region.
• Cultivation of Brassica after castor, sesamum and groundnut of preceding kharif decreases brassica seed yield by 34.7, 26.7 and 6.8 percent compared to fallow kharif land (1360 kg/ha.). Dry matter production was also similarly affected.
• Seed priming of brassica with GA 100 ppm significantly improved seedling establishment, growth and yield compared to unprimed control. This was followed by priming of seed with DMSO, KNo3, thiourea, and water .
• Biofertilizer viz.: NFB; PSB alone or in combination with chemical fertilizer has + ve effect on seed and dry matter yield of brassica. The observed increase was 16.3 and 7.1 percent over control. The bio and chemical fertilizer have synergetic effect, indicating that bio-fertilizers can reduce the demand of chemical fertilizers between 20 - 25 kg/ ha.
• Use of antitranpirants viz.: Kaolin, methonol and phenyl mercuric acetate PMA increased plant performance, seed yield, WUE, heat unit accumulation and heat use efficiency of summer moong.
• Study conducted to test suitability of minor millets and Rajgira for their cultivation in this region indicate that among the minor millets foxtail millet and Rajgira can be profitably grown in this region following proper agro-techniques. The seed yield obtained was 976.1 and 1206 Kg/ha-1 respectively.

2.Arid Horticulture

• A comparative study of in-situ and transplanted plants of aonla, mango and c. apple reveal that transplanted plants have higher survival rate although the growth behavior variedwith fruit plants.
• In aonla priming with 400 ppm GA increased germinability and seedling growth compared to control.
• An irrigation with 40 liter water at 35 DAF increased fruit yield of ber var. Gola and Seb by 12.5 and 12.3 % over fruit yield of 14.13 and 13.70 kg/ plant under rainfed condition.
• Saucer type planting pit induce better growth of various fruit plants viz: anola,c.apple and mango as compared to ring or shelfed trench type pits.
• Root growth study of 15 year old ber plants reveal that primary root has very poor growth which restrict moisture and nutrient availability reducing fruit yield.
• The fruits of elite land reces of date palm from Mundra region vary significantly in fruit size, weight and TSS. Land race BHD � 3 had better ruit quality in term of both size and TSS content.

3.Alternate land use:

• Germplasm evaluation of prominent grasses collected from Kachchh region indicate that strain CSN � 5 of C. setigerus collected from Naliya region produce maximum per plant fresh (1.135 kg) and dry matter (0.553 kg) weight while in Dicanthium annulatum strain collected from banni region perform better with 1.925 and 0.992 kg/ plant fresh and dry forage yield.
• Studies on dry matter production, heat unit requirement and heat use efficiency of prominent grasses indicate that among the Cenchrus ciliaris, Dicanthium annulatum, Desmostichia bipinnata and Lasiurus sindicus, L.S. produce maximum dry forage, accumulate highest GDD to mature and had highest HUE. Other grasses had comparable GDD but low HUE.
• Among the two perennial shrubs (henna and senna) grown under recommended plant populations (50, 000 and 1,66, 650 plants per hectare) henna cultivation gives more economic return. Cultivation in alley cropping of the two despite decrease in dry henna leaf yield gives more economic return of Rs. 6,652 and Rs. 24, 283 per ha. than henna or senna alone respectively. 1. In studies on henna a complete information from improving seed germination to identification of optimum plant population and fertilizer requirement to obtain maximum dry leaf and seed yield, response of crop for its adoptibility agro-forestry and agri-horticulture systems of land use has been generated. Information on economic returns in comparison with other forming systems has also been worked out.

4. Seed production:

• During the period of report seeds of various crops and grasses were produced and sold to different government agencies, NGO�s and farmers of the area. < Crop/grass Quantity (kg.) Pearlmillet 480 Clusterbean 200 Sesame 105 Grass (Cenchrus ciliaris + C. setigerus) 308

5. Farmers Training

• Two one day on-farm training of 25 farmers on � Demonstration of Water-shed technologies� was conducted at the station on March, 27th ,2003 and Dec. 26th , 2003 respectively.