Compensating N and P requirement through biofertilizers in pearl millet under rainfed situation
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Date
2009
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CCSHAU
Abstract
The present study entitled, “Compensating N and P requirement through
biofertilizers in Pearl millet under rainfed situation” was conducted during the kharif
season of 2008 at the Agronomy Research Farm of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana
Agricultural University, Hisar with the objective to study the effect of different nutrient
management practices on growth, yield, quality, microbial biomass at 30 DAS and after
harvest and economics of pearl millet hybrid HHB-197 under different treatments. Ten
different treatments were taken for the experimental study: (T1) Control (T2)
Azotobacter (T3) Biomix (Azotobacter+Azospirillum+Phosphate solubilizing bacteria)
(T4)20 kg N ha-1+10 kg P2O5 ha-1+Azotobacter (T5)30 kg N ha-1+20 P2O5 kg ha-
1+Azotobacter (T6)40 kg N ha-1+30 kg P2O5 ha-1+ Azotobacter (T7)20 kg N ha-1+10 kg
P2O5 ha-1 +Biomix (T8)30 kg N ha-1+ 20 kg P2O5 ha-1+Biomix (T9)40 kg N ha-1+30 kg
P2O5 ha-1 +Biomix (T10)60 kg N ha-1+40 kg P2O5 ha-1.
Different nutrient management practices did not differ significantly in respect of
various phenological events viz. emergence, five-leaf stage, panicle initiation stage, flag
leaf stage, 50 percent flowering, milk stage, dough stage and physiological maturity
and plant population. The growth parameters viz. [plant height (cm), LAI, total number
of tillers/plant, dry matter accumulation/plant (g/plant) and leaf area/plant (cm2)], yield
attributing characters [number of earheads/plant, earhead length (cm), earhead girth
(cm), test weight (g)] and grain, stover yield (kg/ha) differed significantly among
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different treatments. Among all the treatments T10 recorded significantly higher N and P
content and their uptake as well as in protein content in grain and stover. The
treatments involving biofertilizers along with inorganic fertilizer improved the
microbial population (Azotobacter+Azospirillum+Phosphate solubilizing bacteria) as
compared to inorganic fertilizers alone. The population of different microbial groups
was more at 30 DAS compared to that at harvest. Azotobacter, Azospirillum and
Phosphate solubilizing bacteria varied from 103 to 104, 104 to 105 and 105 to 106
respectively after harvest and 30 DAS. The highest gross returns (Rs. 43415 ha-1), net
returns (Rs. 23884 ha-1) and B:C ratio (2.22) were found in the treatment T10 (60 kg N
ha-1+40 kg P2O5 ha-1) followed by T9 (40 kg N ha-1+30 kg P2O5 ha-1+Biomix). Grain
yield of T10, T9 and T6 treatments were higher by 105.1%, 96.5% and 88.6%
respectively than the control and the stover yield of T10 and T9 treatments was 78.2%
and 68% higher than the control. Hence the biomix inoculation can save 20 kg N ha-1
+10 kg P2O5 ha-1.
Description
Keywords
Yields, Millets, Planting, Grain, Nitrogen, Azotobacter, Crops, Developmental stages, Biofertilizers, Fertilizers