Broad bean

Broad bean is cultivated as a vegetable, used as green or dried, fresh or canned and for stock feed. The two major constraints affecting crop production are chronic water limitations and low availability of fertile soils. Among the various water management practices, irrigation scheduling is the most important factor which ensures timely and adequate amount of water to the crop in best possible way for optimizing agricultural production. Phosphorus is the most important element amongst the major plant nutrients in relation to pulse production as it hastens and encourages the development of N2- fixing nodule bacteria. Crop irrigated at ? = -0.03 MPa at 30 cm soil depth showed 5.33% and 34.97% higher seed yield compared to ? = -0.05 MPa at 30 cm soil depth and rainfed, respectively. 75 kg P2O5 ha-1 was significantly superior with 5.33 t ha-1 seed yield which was 8.33% and 28.74% higher over 50 kg P2O5 ha-1 and 25 kg P2O5 ha-1, respectively. Soil moisture extraction by the crop increased with the advancement of crop growing period and again it decreased till harvest. Moisture extraction rate increased with the increase in moisture status of the soil.