Peanut or groundnut is a significant oil seed crop and covers around the 5.85 metre/hectare area with production of 8.26 metres tons. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka are India’s major Peanut growing states.
When you go into commercial peanut cultivation in India, you need to know the factors to add to your information. Different tools are required for peanut cultivation. Tractors, rotavators, cultivators and harvesters are important tools in farming. Tractors play a major role in farming. You can use a Preet tractor and any other tractor for peanut cultivation.
How to Start Peanut Farming?
Here we are describing peanut farming with complete specifications.
1. Suitable Soil for Growing Peanut
Farmers grow peanuts in well-drained sandy loam or sandy clay or sandy loam soil. Deep, well-drained soil with pH 6.5-7.0 and high fertility is ideal for groundnut. The optimum soil temperature for good germination of groundnut is 30°C. Low sowing temperatures delay germination and increase seed and seedling diseases. Therefore, before starting groundnut cultivation, the soil must be tested.
2. Crop Rotation of Peanut
Crop rotation is very important in groundnut cultivation; it helps in the efficient use of nutrients and reduces soil-borne diseases and nematodes. It also helps in reducing the incidence of weeds. Peanuts can be followed by maize, Jowar, Bajra or small cereal crops. We recommend not to grow peanuts after peanuts, tobacco, or cotton to reduce the incidence of soil-borne şişli escort diseases.
3. Application of Manures and Fertilizers of Groundnut
In peanut cultivation, a balanced fertilizer application based on a soil test should provide adequate calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, and magnesium levels. Nutrient availability depends on soil pH, organic matter content, and the release rate of nutrients from soil minerals. Availability of other essential ions such as copper, boron, iron, manganese and nitrogen may be low in alkaline soils (pH > 8.5); Whereas an acidic soil (pH < 6) may be deficient in phosphorus, molybdenum, manganese, sulphur, nitrogen, potassium and calcium. Hence, depending on the nutrient status of the soil and the targeted yield.
4. Manure Application in Peanut production
You should use the application of 20 t ha-1 of well-decomposed farm yard-manure or 1 0 – 1 2 t ha-1 of chicken manure in peanut farming. And complete the 1 month before sowing. For good plant development, you should mix manure application into the soil to improve the soil structure.
5. Fertilizers Application of Peanut Crop
The main usable fertilizer components in peanut farming are Calcium, Nitrogen, Potassium, Sulphur, Zinc and Iron. You can connect deficiencies of molybdenum, copper, manganese, boron with the help of soil applications of these nutrients when symptoms appear. This manure is dependent on agro-climatic and soil type conditions.
6. Plot design
When testing for quantitative characters and yield, treatments are arranged in the plot in blocks. The plot size is 4m length in four rows with 30 cm in between rows and 10 cm in between plants.
7. How to Select the Peanut Seed
About one week before sowing, you should select the bold and well-fill pods for shelling. The viability of the kernels can deteriorate after prolonged peeling and storage and are subject to storage insect damage. Plants produced from thicker kernels are correspondingly better than smaller kernels in their emergence rate, number of successful shoots, number of primary branches and leaves, and dry mass of roots, twigs, total dry matter and pod yield.
8. The Seed Treatment Procedure of Peanut
For controlling seed and seedling disease-causing pathogens, seed before sowing should be treated with Thiram® (AI 5 0% @ 3 g kg’ 1 seed) or Bavistin® (AI 5 0% @ 2 g kg’ 1 seed). In addition, where few rhizobia have been found in soil, seed can be inoculated at the time of sowing to ensure good nodulation.
9. The Spacing and Seed Rate of Peanut
The seed rate depends on the variety (Valencia, Spinach or Virginia), runner or bunch type. The recommended population for bunch varieties is 330000 plant hectares (about one plant per 30 x 10 cm). In the case of spreading varieties and semi-spreading, the recommended population is 250000 plant hectares (one plant per 40 x 10 cm).
10. Irrigation Requirement for Peanut Farming
- Peanut yields will be reduced if the topsoil area dries out before flowering through pod development. In addition, lack of water can have the following consequences.
- Decrease in dry matter production of vegetative components and crop growth rate. Fewer and shorter leaves with smaller compact cells and shorter stems. Lack of water from sowing delays rapid fruit growth by 10 days to 67 days and reduces yield.
- Water loss during the flowering and pegging stages results in greater yield loss than stress at any other growth stage; This deficiency reduces the number of flowering plants.
- The loss of soil surface water during stubble formation and pod development reduces pod number and yield.
Equipment Requirement
With the above information regarding cultivation, you should also know the equipment that will help to boost the yield. Rotavators, cultivators, tillers and tractors are essential in every cultivation. However, the Swaraj tractor is the most pivotal equipment.
For more information regarding peanut farming in India, stay tuned with us.