Long-term effect of fertilizer application on rainwater use efficiency, soil fertility and sustainability of yield and profitability from sorghum and pigeonpea in semi-arid Vertisols
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53550/Keywords:
Organic and inorganic fertilizers, Rainwater use efficiency, Monetary returns, VertisolsAbstract
A long-term intercropping experiment with sorghum and pigeonpea was conducted during 1998 to 2008 under semi-arid Vertisols at Akola to identify a superior treatment for sustaining maximum rainwater use efficiency (RWUE), yield and monetary returns and maintaining soil fertility over years. The experiment was conducted with 9 fertilizer treatments with recommended dose of nutrients @ -1 80:40:0 NPK kg ha for sorghum. The treatments were: (i) T : Control; (ii) T : 100% 1 2 -1 recommended N; (iii) T : 50% recommended N; (iv) T : FYM @ 4 t ha ; (v) T : FYM @ 3 4 5 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 4 t ha + 10 kg N ha ; (vi) T : FYM @ 4 t ha + 20 kg N ha ; (vii) T : 2 t ha green leaf + 10 6 7 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 kg N ha ; (viii) T : 2 t ha green leaf + 20 kg N ha and (ix) T : FYM @ 4 t ha + 2 t ha 8 9 -1 green leaf. A common dose of P O @ 40 kg ha was applied to both crops and N 2 5 was given to only sorghum. The soil was low in N, P and high in K. The study indicated a significant effect of treatments on soil nutrients, RWUE, yield and monetary returns over years. T gave significantly higher sorghum equivalent 6 -1 -1 -1 yield of 4471 kg ha and RWUE of 6.47 kg ha mm . This treatment also gave -1 -1 maximum gross returns of `42291 ha ; net returns of ` 25416 ha ; benefit-cost -1 -1 (B:C) ratio of 2.51; apart from maintaining soil carbon of 6.7 g kg ; N of 255 kg ha ; -1 -1 P O of 28.9 kg ha and K O of 339 kg ha . Maximum sustainability yield index of 2 5 2 53% with lowest rank sum were attained by T . We conclude that the farmers could 6 adopt treatment T to attain maximum profitability, RWUE and maintenance of soil 6 fertility under semi-arid Vertisols.
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