Nutrient deficiency is a major factor of lower yield of pulses. Mostly macronutrients are applied and micronutrients are ignored. Micronutrients play an important role in proper growth and development of all the field crops. Out of the total cultivated land of the world, 30 percent is deficient in zinc. Reduced application of zinc has resulted in less zinc content in the seeds as well as reduced yields.
Green gram (Vigna radiata L.) is an important legume of Asian origin, and due to ecological versatility it is widely cultivated in the countries of Asia, Australia and Africa continents. It is an important summer pulse crop of many South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Korea. Green gram being a pulse crop posse’s high nutritive value. Its seed contains 24.2% protein, 1.3 % fat and 60.4 % carbohydrate. It is a short duration crop and can be grown twice a year i.e. in spring and autumn seasons. In 2010-11 it was cultivated on an area of 137 thousand hectares and its production was 77.1 thousand tones which illustrates that production was 35% lesser than last year.
Among various factors affecting the yield of green gram deficiencyof zinc is progressively increasing due to intensive croppingsystems and use of Zn free fertilizers. An insufficient supply of Zn can affect yield and quality of the crop adversely; because Zn is required for production of hormones, elongation of inter nodal distance, phosphorus utilization, enhancing leaf area, regulation of plant growth and promoting maturity of the plants. Application of 1.5 kg Zn ha-1 in green gram was found optimum and this dose can increase plant height, primary branches, functional leaves, dry matter, nodule number, nodule weight per plant and seed yield. Zinc sulphate is a major source of Zn and is being used worldwide. There are three methods for application of micronutrients which are: soil application, seed treatment and foliar application. Foliar application is usually considered as costly because it needs high cost equipments.
