ANNALS OF ARID ZONEVol. 13, No. I, March, 1974

EFFEOT OF SOIL APPLICATION OF ALDRIN &

DIELDRIN ON YIELD AND CHEMICAL COMPO-SITION OF GROUNDNUT (ARAOHIS HYPOGAEA L.)

KULDIP SINGH DHINDSA, S. M. SINGHVI, S. K. GUPTA AND N. D. VERMA

Department of Plant Breeding, Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar

( Received on 12-6-72 )

There are several reports in literature regarding the effect of insecticideson the yield of various crops but little is known about their effect oti qualityaspect (Agarwala, 1955; Chatterji and Sarup, 1960). Bogdanov (1963) reportedan increase in amino acid content of leaves and beans when bean plants weresprayed with thiometon and parathion. Spray of menazon increased the yieldand improved the quality of groundnut (Davies and Kasule, 1964). Aldrin anddieldrin are commonly used for the control of termites in various crops. Presentinvestigations were undertaken to study their effect on the yield and quality ofground nut, an important crop of semi-arid zones.

Aldrin and dieldrin were applied in soil with irrigation water afterone month of' sowing, at the rate of 0.625, 1.250, 1.875 and 2.500 kg a. i.per hectare. There were three replications for each treatment in randomizedblock design. Groundnut variety C 501 was used for the experiment. Atmaturity, the yield data were recorded and composite samples from each treat-ment were analysed in duplicate for oil, protein and mineral matter· by AOAC(1960) methods. The reducing sugars and total soluble sugars weredetermined by the methods described by Thomas (1924) and Dubois et al (1956)respective Iy.

The application of aldrin and dieldrin significantly increased the pod yieldof ground nut (Table 1). Thert: was a gradual increase in the yield with increasingdosses of insecticides. A yield of 27.65 qtlsfha was obtained from the controlplots and the percentage increase in yield over cORtrol with 2.500 kg a.i. per hec-tare doses of aldrin and dieldrin was 64.8 and 48.3 respectively. Oil content of thekernels was adversely affected by the application of the insecticides. There was aprogressive decrease in oil content with the increasing doses of both the insecticides.

of the bean plantnauch Inst. Rast.

]960. Insecticidal trials against termites infestingunirrigated (baraui) conditons. Curro Sci., 29

00 : KULDIP SINGH I'HINDSA, S M SINGHVI, S. L GUPTA AND N D. VERMA

Shelling percentage of pods was determined and therefrom the production of oilper hectare calculated. All the treatments gave higher oil yield per hectare ascompared to control. The increase in yield of oil per ha was due to higher seedyield obtained with the application of these insecticides.

Application of dieldrin upto 1.875 kg a.i. per hectare resulted in acorresponding increase in crude protein content. Howe'Jer, there was a relativedecrease in the protein content with 2.500 kg a.i. per hectare dose of dieldrin.Nandra and Chopra (1969) also reported an increase in protein content of groundnutkernels with the application of thiometon. It was interesting to note that aldrinat the rate of 0.625 and 1.250 kg a.i. per hectare decreased the protein content ascompared to control. Reverse was, however, true with the higher doses of aldrin.

Total sugar content increased progressively with the increasing dosesof dieldrin. However, application of aldrin resulted in decreased sugar content.No specific effect of these insecticides could be observed on reducing sugarsand mineral matter content.

REFERENCES

Agarwala, S. B. D. 1955. Control of sugarcane termite. 1946-53. J. ECGn.Ent., 48 (5) : 533-537.

A. O. A. C. 1960. Official methods of analysis.' Assoc. Official Agric. Chern.Washington 7th cd: 12, 130 and 158.

Bogdanov, V. 1963, Changes in composition and characterafter spraying with parathion or Ekatin. Ezv.5: 181-191.

Chatterji, S. and SarllP, P.wheat plants under(3): 108.

Davies, l C. and Kasule, F. K. 1964. The control of groundnut resette diseasein Uganda. Trop Agric. Trin., 41 (4) : 303-309.

Dubois, M., Gilles, K. A., Hamilton, J. K, Rebers, P. A. and Smith, F. 1956.Color;meteric method for determination of sugars and related substances.Analytical chern., 28: 350-356.

Nandra. K.S. and Chopra. S.L. 1969. Effect of thiometon on the Chemical Composi-tion and the growth of groundnut crop. IndianJ. Agric. Sci. 39 (3) : 266-270

Thomas, W. 1924. Colorimetric determination of Carbohydrates in plants by picricacid reduction method. II Estimation of reducing sugars and sucrose. J. Amer.Ch8m. Seo. 46 : 870-875

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ANNALS OF ARID ZONEVol. 13, No. I, March, 1974

BOOK REVIEW

GINDEL, 1. 1973. A new ecopnysiological approach to forest·water relationshipsin arid climates. Dr. W. Junk B. V., Publishers, The Hague,PI'. 142, Price not mentioned.

The book is the result of many years of painstaking research byDr.!. Gindel on the water relations of trees in the arid area of Israel.

The book starts with an account of the environmental conditions and ofthe flora of the three climatic zones (subtropical, semi-desert and desert) whereresearch was conducted by the author. The second chapter deals with the e/fectsof environment on the morphological, anatomical and physiological properties offorest trees. A good deal of new information on the structure of wood underdifferent habitats has been presented. The author. is of the opinion that thegravimatric method is superior to the neutron scatter method in studying the soilmoisture status of forest land. Desert trees in tht'ir natural habitat do not, accordingto the author, undergo any conspicuous dehydration during drought. The role ofatmospheric water in maintaing cell turgor in the leaves and roots of trees hasbeen discussed in some detail. Weare told, for t'xample, that the cut-leaf, quickweighing method is quite satisfactory for calculating water loss. Interested readerswill be benifitted from the detailed exprimental technique employed by the author.The importance of dew in crop production under arid conditions seems indeed tobave been known to the ancients and the author has quoted verses from theBible to "emphasise this point. In the Atacama desert of northern Chile and Peru,the annual rainfall may be as low as 50 mm but the heavy mist occurring there for6 months of th.: year provides moisture equivalent to 300-400 mm of rain.The roots of cacti penetrate only upto a few decimeters and continue to absorb mistand dew. This is one means of their succesful desert adaptation. Dew and mistcontain both anions and cations some of which have nutritional significance, theion content being comparatively higher under a forest canopy than in an open area.