Influence of weather on the fibre yield of mesta (Hibiscus sabdariffa) in the north coastal zone of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Mesta (Hibiscus sabdariffa) is an important fibre crop in the north coastal zone of Andhra Pradesh which accounts for 59% of India's total production of mesta. The area under this crop has reduced dramatically in recent years and in order to understand the contribution of weather to this decline, long-term experimental data (14 years) on mesta cv. AMV-4 and regional crop yields were analysed. Crop yields decreased in seasons when rainfall exceeded 900 mm and maximum temperature remained below 32.0°C during 10–16 weeks after sowing (WAS), which coincided with the active vegetative stage. The average yields of the region were high when seasonal rainfall ranged between 600 and 725 mm. Increased fibre yields were observed when increasing seasonal rainfall coincided with maximum temperatures exceeding 33.5°C. Fibre yields from a long-term experiment showed strong positive correlations with maximum temperature during 6–16 WAS (r = 0.79) and with mean diurnal temperature range (8.6–10.7°C) during 11–19 WAS (r = 0.66). Step-wise regression showed that maximum variability in fibre yield was explained by maximum temperature which could be used to develop models to predict yield at least one month in advance with acceptable accuracy. This prediction could then be used as an input for crop planning and market intelligence.

Keywords:

• mesta
• regional yields
• maximum temperature
• rainfall
• yield estimation