A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Kota during the rabi seasons of 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 to evaluate effective dose of hydrogel and salicylic acid for increasing the productivity, quality and water-use efficiency of Indian mustard in restricted irrigation condition of S-E Rajasthan. The experiment consisting of 12 treatment combinations,viz.T₁:control, T₂:hydrogel 2.5 kg/ha,T₃:hydrogel 5 kg/ha,T₄: salicylic acid (SA) 100 ppm at flowering (fl) and siliqua formation (sf),T₅:SA 200 ppm at fl and sf,T₆:hydrogel 2.5 kg/ha + SA 100 ppm at fl and sf, T₇:hydrogel 2.5 kg/ha + SA 200 ppm at fl and sf, T₈:hydrogel 5 kg/ha + SA 100 ppm at fl and sf, T₉: hydrogel 5 kg/ha + SA 200 ppm at fl and sf, T₁₀:Two irrigation at pre-flowering and siliqua development, T₁₁: hydrogel 2.5 kg/ha + SA 100 ppm at fl and T₁₂:hydrogel 2.5 kg/ha + SA 200 ppm at fl were laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Among treatment combinations, application of hydrogel 5 kg/ha with two spray of salicylic acid 200 ppm at flowering and siliqua formation stage significantly  increased plant height (222.40 cm), dry matter/plant (62.20 g), branches/plant ( 16.33), siliquae /plant (236.67), seeds/ siliqua (16.23), 1000-seed weight (5.47 g), seed yield (2651.89 kg/ha), oil content (38.95 %) and oil yield (1032.91 kg/ha), protein content (21.07 %), gross return (1,13,404/ha), net return ( 82,818/ha) and soil moisture retention (13.70 %) over T₁, T₄, T₅ and T₂ and at par with rest of treatments. While, the highest water-use efficiency (12.83 kg /ha-mm) was recorded under the same treatment but it was significantly superior over T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄, T₅ and T₁₀ and on par with rest of treatments. Whereas significantly higher B: C ratio (3.46) recorded in irrigation treatment over all the other treatments. Furthermore significantly highest improvement in growth, yield attributes and economics was recorded under irrigation treatment applied at pre-flowering and siliqua formation stage over T₁ and alone application of hydrogel and SA. Thus, the result showed that application of hydrogel  either 2.5 or 5 kg/ha with two spray of SA 200 ppm at flowering and siliqua formation was found beneficial for obtaining high seed yield, WUE as well as net returns.

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