Evaluation of yield gap analysis and impact of integrated crop management in cotton through FLDs in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh

During the three consecutive years, from 2019 to 2021, the RARS (Regional Agricultural Research Station), Nandyal, conducted 25 front line demonstrations on integrated crop management across different locations in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh with the objective of improving cotton productivity. The technologies included were summer ploughing, tank mixture of quizalofop ethyl and pyrithiobac sodium for early weed control, usage of neem oil, sticky traps and raising of maize crop as a barrier to prevent pest spread, foliar spray of micro- nutrient (19:19:19), application of thiodicarb, profenophos, lambda cyhalothrin, and the deployment of pheromone traps for pink bollworm control, along with the utilization of planofix to minimize boll drop. The average seed cotton yield of the demonstration fields utilizing improved technologies was recorded at 12.71 q ha-1 compared to the existing farming practices (11.43 q ha-1).