PRECISION NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT THROUGH RESCHEDULING APPLICATION TIME FOR WIDELY SPACED SUGARCANE CROPS
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Date
2021
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Dr.RPCAU, Pusa
Abstract
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a commercially important food and energy crop in tropical and subtropical climates. Sugarcane productivity is largely dependent on nutrient management. Sugarcane responds well to split nitrogen and potassium applications. A field experiment was performed with this in consideration entitled “Precision nutrient management through rescheduling application time for widely spaced sugarcane crops” at Crop Research Centre, Pusa Farm of Sugarcane Research Institute, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur during spring season of 2020-21. The objective of the research were i) to assess the effect of method and split application of N and K on growth, yield attributes and nutrient content in sugarcane plant ii) to assess the quality of sugarcane juice iii) to analyse the nutrient status of post-harvest soil of experimental field iv) to evaluate the economics of different treatments. The soil of the experimental plot was calcareous in nature with a pH value of 8.1. The soil was low in organic carbon (0.41 %), available nitrogen (235.3 kg/ha), medium in available phosphorus (23.5 kg/ha) and available potassium (141.2 kg/ha). The experiment was set up under split plot design replicated thrice having 8 treatment combinations. The main plot was
consisting of two methods of fertilizer application (band placement and broadcasting) and four split doses of fertilizer application (RDN+RDK in 5 splits, RDN+RDK in 6 splits, RDN+RDK in 7 splits and recommended dose of fertilizer in sub-plots Total number of plots was 24 with (8.0 m × 8.4 m) 67.2 m2 of individual plot size.
Results of the experiment indicated that Band placement method exerted significant influence on tiller population at 120 DAP, (167.85 x103 ha-1) only and split application of nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) had significant influence on tiller population at all growth stages of sugarcane crop. Plant height, leaf area Index (LAI) and dry matter accumulation (DMA) increased with the increasing age of crop. The values of all these growth parameters was higher when nitrogen and potassium fertilizer applied in 7 splits compared to recommended practice, the extent of increase was 8.97 for plant height, 13.70 for LAI and 9.9 % for DMA.
Splits application of nitrogen and potassium exerted significant influence on yield attributes namely cane diameter, number of millable cane, length of internodes and cane: top ratio except number of nodes/ cane. Recommended practice of fertilizer application caused significant increase in single cane weight and cane diameter and it was to the tune of 4.72 and 4.01 % respectively while application of N and K in 7 splits produced the higher number of millable cane (144.90 x103 ha-1), length of internode (9.31 cm) and cane: top ratio (3.86), accounting 23.9, 10.7 and 82.9 % respectively. The method of fertilizer application showed non-significant effect on yield attributes except number of millable cane. Band placement method gave significantly maximum number of millable cane (117.98 x103ha-1) as compared to broadcasting.
At harvest significantly higher cane yield (86.70 t ha-1) was achieved in band placement method to the tune of 17.32 % as compared to broadcasting while non-significant effect exerted by method of application on sugar yield and commercial cane sugar percentage (CCS). Significantly higher cane yield and sugar yield was registered when the crop fertilizer with nitrogen and potassium in 7 splits, accounting 18.99 and 21.64 % more than the recommended practices respectively. Quality parameters like brix, pol, purity and juice recovery percentage were not influenced by method of fertilizer application. Split application of N and K did not exert significant influence on brix, pol, purity percentage except juice recovery percentage. The uptake
of N, P and K was significantly higher in band placement method of fertilizer application accounting 14.13, 36.06 and 17.14 % respectively. Similarly, N, P and K uptake was significantly higher with seven splits of nitrogen and potassium to the tune of 25.9, 13.8 and 33.4 % respectively. In post-harvest analysis of soil, available N (204.38 kg ha-1) was significantly higher in band placement as compared to broadcasting. However, available P and K were non-significantly affected by the method of fertilizer application. The available N (203.97 kg ha-1) and available K (124.30 kg ha-1) was found significantly higher in seven split applications of nitrogen and potassium in comparison to other treatments. Maximum gross returns (246853 ₹/ha), net returns (105448 ₹/ha) and B:C ratio (1.75) was found in band placement method in comparison to broadcasting. Likewise, seven splits application of N and K exerted significant influence on gross returns (242820 ₹/ha), net returns (100385 ₹/ha) as compared to other treatment.
Thus it can be inferred that application of nitrogen and potassium in seven splits by band placement method can be recommended as a nutrient management practice to sustain the productivity of sugarcane planted in wide spacing in spring season of Bihar.