Impact of Microclimatic Factors on the Growth Stages of Sesame ( Sesamum indicum L) Agro-Ecosystem for Betterment of Arid Zone Farming in the North-Western Arid Region of Rajasthan

The present study was done to understand the influence of microclimatic factors on the growth stages of sesame in the rain fed regions, of north-western arid region of district Bikaner (Rajasthan) India. The present study includes the following parameters: 1. Air temperature in °C, relative humidity in percentage and vapour pressure in mm of mercury at the ground surface and at different heights (5 cm, 15 cm, 30 cm, 60 cm and 100 cm). 2. Soil temperature in °C at ground surface and at different depths (5 cm, 15 cm and 30 cm). 3. Net radiations in g.cal/cm2/minute. These agro-climatic parameters have been recorded on various stages viz. vegetative growth stages, flowering stage, (i.e., at 50% flowering) and capsule stage (i.e., at 50% capsule formation) by visual rating at different times of that day (i.e., 8.00, 14.00 and 18.00 hours in the kharif season of year 2014, 2015 and 2016 The research site was located in crop field of sesame at village Ridmalsar lying 20 km in North-East to the city Bikaner, Rajasthan, India and the investigation was carried out in randomized block design with six replications. Each replication was separated with a path of 1.0 m. and each sub-plot was separated by 50 cm path. The sesame variety studied was RT46 as this variety was introduced in last few years and was famous between local farmers for it drought resistant property, early maturity and high disease resistant quality. To study the influence of these parameters the climatic history of last ten year and also the water budget was analyzed. The meteorological data’s were collected from KVK and the regional center of CAZRI (Central Arid Zone Research Institute Beechwal), Bikaner (Rajasthan). It can be concluded from present study that air temperature in profile, relative humidity distribution and also vapour pressure in the microclimatic zone (sesame agro-ecosystem) of the atmosphere varies with changes in the time of day (morning, noon and afternoon), change in height of profile (5, 15, 30, 60 and 100 cm ) and stages of crop. The net radiation values also show increase from morning to noon in all the different stages of growth.