Dynamics of mineralization of crop residues under baby corn- baby corn system
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Date
2018
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College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, CAU Imphal.
Abstract
Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third most important cereal crop next to rice and wheat in India. It covers area of 8.85 M ha with the production and productivity of 22.84 M t and 2.58 t ha-1, respectively (Agricultural Statistics, 2016). In North Eastern Hill Region maize is the second most important food crop next to rice and grown in 17.4 lakh ha area with the production and productivity of 26.5 lakh tones and 1.5 t ha-1, respectively (AgriculturalStatistics, 2015). Being a C4 plant, maize is an efficient converter of food and also considered as a ‘Miracle crop’ due to its immense potential yield. It is grown with equal success in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world in more than 130 countries. It is of great importance for both the human and animal feeding. Baby corn (Zeamays L.) is a vegetable taken from sweet corn or standard maize (corn) plants, which is harvested early, while the ears are very small, immature and just after the emergence of white silk (2-3 cm length). Its miniature size is as appealing as its taste, colour and crunch. Baby corn cultivation provides tremendous avenues for crop diversification, crop intensification, value addition and revenue generation. Despite of its better economic return and increasing demand in international market, the cultivation of baby corn faced some constraints. One of them are nutrient management. Maize is an exhaustive crop and requires a balanced supply of all nutrients. But availability of required fertilizer in NER is very less and application of inorganic fertilizers also discouraged due to organic farming policy in NER of India. The areas like North Eastern region of India and other hilly areas, where a lot of biomass is available from forest, weeds, crops etc. organic farming would be more economical. Sometimes local people burn the forest area which not only waste the available environmental resources but also pollute the environment and disturb the different biological cycles occurring in that eco-system. The use of crop residues as mulches is an important agriculture practice in some parts of India. As North Eastern Hill region is now comes under organic farming zones, we should look for alternative nutrient supply such as crop residues, weed biomasses and other organic plant and animal waste products. Crop residues can be used as organic mulches or be incorporated into the soil because these residues improve soil fertility. These residues contain essential plant nutrients which are released as plant available forms during residue decomposition. Decomposition and nutrient release patterns of different organic residues with different ORQI value like rice (4.35), Elusine (4.56), ambrosia (6.04), groundnut (9.16) and mixed weed biomass (4.90) were investigated under field conditions, using litterbags which allowed access of soil fauna. The decomposition rate constants ranged from 0.007 to 0.023 Days-1, decreasing in the following order; Groundnut > mixed weed biomass >ambrosia > elusine > rice residue. Negative relationships were observed between decomposition rate constants and C:N ratio, percent lignin and polyphenol content of plant residues. A positive relationship was observed between decomposition rate constant.These results indicate that both the chemical composition of plant residues and nature of the decomposer played an important role in plant residue decomposition. Nutrient release differed with quality of plant residues and there nutrient mineralization rate constant. For N and P release the mineralization constant vary from 0.018 to 0.034 Day-1 and 0.11 to 0.033 day-1, respectively and release of nutrient from organic residues were in following order; For N: groundnut> Ambrosia> mixed weed biomass> elusine> rice and for P: groundnut>ambrosia=mixed weed biomass> elusine> rice residue. Groundnut could therefore improve the nutrition of fast growing and nutrient exhaustive crop like baby corn whereas rice straw would rather play a role in the build-up of soil organic matter in the long term and provide nutrient to long duration crop or in a cropping system.
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Babycorn