Yield and economics assessment of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) varieties under different dates of sowing during rabi season

A field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2023-24 at Post Graduate Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, VNMKV, Parbhani. The experiment was laid out in Split Plot Design with Twelve treatments in three replications by keeping sowing time (D1: 12th October, D2: 26th October, D3: 9th November and D4: 23rd November) as a first factor and Varieties (V1: Varun, V2: Phule Viraj and V3: Phule Rajma) as a second factor. Results revealed that, among the sowing dates regarding the yield characters like No. of pods-1(9.33), No. of seeds per/pod (3.47), pod dry weight/plant (8.39 g), wt. of seeds/pod (0.75 g), seed weight/plant (6.77 g), straw yield/plant (11.66 g) and seed index (21.80 g) was recorded maximum in variety Phule Viraj. However, the No. of pods-1(8.25), No. of seeds per/pod (2.39), pod dry weight/plant (7.44 g), wt. of seeds/pod (0.47 g), seed weight/plant (3.29 g), straw yield/plant (8.21 g) and seed index (20.27 g) yield character was found to be lowest in variety Varun. On the basis of present studies results revealed that, treatment D3 (November 9th) can satisfactorily produce the higher yield attributing characters viz., No. of pods/plant, No. of seeds/pod, Pod dry weight/plant (g), Wt. of seeds/pod (g), Seed weight/plant (g), straw yield/plant (g) and seed index (g) which was significantly superior over rest of treatments and it was found to at par with the treatment D2 which was sown on October 26th. Whereas, lowest value were recorded in treatment (D1) which sown on October 12th. But in case of highest Gross returns and net returns (108021 & 62893 ? ha-1) and BCR (3.11) which obtained in treatment D3. While highest net returns obtained in Variety Phule Viraj (59101 ? ha-1) and BCR (2.77).