Effect of management practices on productivity, quality of maize and soil properties in an acid hill soil
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Date
2021-10-07
Authors
THAKUR, CHANDAN
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Palampur
Abstract
Fertilizers play an important role in any crop production system but their imbalanced and sole
application has been found to affect adversely the production potential, quality of produce as well as
the soil health. The productivity of maize is quite low and there is ample scope to improve this by
manipulating nutrient management systems in such a way that these are more eco-friendly, effective
and largely acceptable. Natural farming system (NFS), involving no chemical fertilizers, very less
amount of organic inputs prepared using the excreta from indigenous (‘Desi’) cows and other locally
available inputs is being advocated for minimizing costs, maintaining the soil health and productivity
as well as the quality of produce. Therefore, this investigation was carried out to study the effect of
management practices on productivity and quality of maize grains and soil properties. The experiment
comprised of eleven treatments involving recommended NPK levels, and their integration with FYM
and lime, organic farming package, three natural farming system practices involving formulations
based on excreta of indigenous and crossbred cows and buffalo, and their supplementation with 25 per
cent of recommended NPK. The NFS formulations (beejamrit, jeevamrit and ghan-jeevamrit) differed
markedly with respect to NPK contents, pH, microbial counts and total dissolved solids. Application of
100 per cent NPK + FYM resulted in better growth and recorded the highest maize grain (42.25 q ha1
) and stover yield (71.82 q ha-1
) but was statistically at par with 100 per cent NPK + lime. Among
organic/NFS treatments, sole organic farming treatment recorded significantly higher maize grain
equivalent yield (29.13 q ha-1
) in comparison to NFS based on crossbred cow (24.15 q ha-1
) and NFS
based on buffalo (23.07 q ha-1
) but was at par with NFS based on indigenous cow (26.54 q ha-1
).
Supplementation with 25 per cent NPK in these treatments significantly enhanced the yield over pure
organic/natural farming system treatments. Similar trend was also observed for NPK uptake by maize.
Reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, ash and crude protein as well as available NPK contents were
also higher under 100 per cent NPK + FYM, closely followed by 100 per cent NPK + lime treatment.
However, carbohydrates, starch, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc and iron contents were higher under
pure organic farming and natural farming system treatments in comparison to treatments involving use
of chemical fertilizers. Organic carbon, bulk density, water holding capacity, mean weight diameter,
and Mg in soils along with the microbiological characteristics were recorded higher in organic farming
+ 25 per cent NPK treatment but Ca was recorded highest in 100 per cent NPK + lime treatment. A
significant and positive correlation was found for maize grain equivalent yield and nutrients uptake
with soil properties for organic and natural farming system treatments. Hence, there was a notable
effect of management practices on productivity, quality of maize and soil properties in an acid hill soil,
with conventional integrated nutrient management system giving the better results for most of the
parameters under study