Prasad, S. S.Kumar, Chiranjeeb2020-02-112020-02-112019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810142894The destructive increment in population has led to generation of vast amount of solid and organic wastes, thus initiating the problems regarding soil and environmental pollution, soil health deterioration, disturbing soil -physical-chemical-biological equilibrium continuum. An advanced, scientific technique must be developed to mitigate the waste generation problems, providing proper nutrients for overall soil health improvement, creating adoptable micro environment for growth of microbes and enhancing soil nutrient conversion cycles leading to proper nutrient supply for plant growth. The mitigation of wastes generated will vastly affect the whole environment, creating a pollution free environment. Keeping the above aspects in view, a study was conducted during the Kharif season in 2018 at Vermicompost production unit, RPCAU, Pusa with an objective of proper mitigation of waste and scientifically converting it into some useful manure. Vermicomposting of household generated wastes with cow dung at different proportion was made and finally quality analysis of vermicompost was done. On the basis of nutrients contents, microbial growth, enzymatic activities, carbon pool variations and recovery percent, the vermicompost prepared from equal proportions of household waste and cow dung (50 :50) on weight basis was considered the best one and it was further utilized in an incubation experiment which was synchronized with pot culture rice experiment. In the incubation experiment four levels of vermicompost (0 t ha-1, 1.25 t ha-1, 2.5 t ha-1, 3.7 t ha-1) and three levels of fertilizer ( 0 %, 100 %, 50 % RDF) were taken for analyzing the effect on the carbon pools, functional indicator microbes growth, enzymatic activities in calcareous sandy loam soil at four stages of incubation (3 factors of variations) which matched with the critical rice crop growth stages, replicated thrice using Completely Randomized Design (CRD). In pot-culture experiment, the effect of vermicompost and fertilizer on carbon pools, functional indicator microbes growth, nutrient contents, uptakes, efficiencies and yields were conducted with rice crop (2 factors of variations) using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) statistical procedure. During incubation experiment, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen, microbial biomass phosphorus, dehydrogenase activities, water soluble carbon, hot-water soluble carbon, available-N increased from 0th DAI to 115th DAI. The TOC, Organic carbon, available-P2O5 increased from 0th DAI to 65th DAI and then decreased up to 115th DAI. Increasing levels of vermicompost and fertilizer increased the functional-indicator microbes from 0th DAI to 65th DAI and then declined the rate of increase from 65th DAI to 115th DAI. The microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass phosphorus and microbial biomass nitrogen increased 101.84 %, 40.63 %, 42.52 % over control at 115th DAI, respectively. The pot-culture experiment marked the increase in available-N, P, S nutrients content in post-harvest soil as well as increase in carbon pools, functional-indicator microbes growth from tillering stage of rice cropped soil up to post-harvest period soil in response to the increased dose of vermicompost and fertilizer. The increased dose of vermicompost (3.75 t ha-1) and full dose of fertilizer (100 % RDF) significantly increased available-N, MBC, azotobacter population count 25.55 % ,125.69 % and 62.71 % increase over control in post-harvest soil, respectively. In pot-culture experiment at tillering stage the carbon pools, nutrient contents as well as functional indicator microbes increased significantly over control. The increase in the microbial biomass carbon and microbial nitrogen significantly increased 116.85 % and 113.26 % over control. The bacillus count increased significantly by 89.09 % over control in soil at tillering stage. All other functional indicator microbes increased significantly over control but lower than post-harvest soil. The grain and straw yields were significantly superior in response to vermicompost (3.75 t ha-1) and RDF which was statistically at par with application of vermicompost level (2.5 t ha-1) and fertilizer (100 % RDF) and their values were 54.66 g pot-1 and 53.55 g pot-1 for grain , 60.40 g pot-1 and 58.05 g pot-1 for straw, respectively. The yield was equal in case of vermicompost (1.25 t ha-1) with RDF without affecting yield loss. Thus, it can be concluded that 50 % save over the cost of chemical fertilizer is achieved in the whole experiment and can be suggested to the farmers. The nutrients content in grain and straw and their uptakes, nutrient use efficiencies was found significantly superior in the combined application of high dose vermicompost ( 3.75 t ha-1) and fertilizer(100 % RDF) than their sole applications. The pot-culture experiment marked the increase in available-N, P, S nutrients content in post-harvest soil as well as increase in carbon pools, functional-indicator microbes growth in soil in response to the increased dose of vermicompost and fertilizer. The increased dose of vermicompost (3.75 t ha-1) and full dose of fertilizer (100 % RDF) significantly increased available-N, microbial biomass carbon, azotobacter population count 25.55 % ,125.69 % and 62.71 % increase over control in post-harvest soil, respectively.enThesis