Reliance on inorganic fertilizers with less or no use of organic fertilizers has impaired the productivity of soils worldwide. Therefore, the present study was conducted to quantify the effects of integrated nutrient management on rice yield, nutrient use efficiency, soil fertility, and carbon (C) sequestration in cultivated land. The experiment was designed with seven treatments comprising of a zero input control, recommended inorganic fertilizers (RD), poultry manure (PM) (5 t ha−1) + 50% RD, PM (2.5 t ha−1) + 75% RD, vermicompost (VC) (5 t ha−1) + 50% RD, VC (2.5 t ha−1) + 75% RD, and farmers’ practice (FP) with three replications that were laid out in a randomized complete block design. The highest grain yield (6.16–6.27 t ha−1) was attained when VC and PM were applied at the rate of 2.5 t ha−1 along with 75% RD. Uptake of nutrients and their subsequent use efficiencies appeared higher and satisfactory from the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers. The addition of organic fertilizer significantly influenced the organic carbon, total carbon, total nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, soil pH, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium, and magnesium contents in post-harvest soil, which indicated enhancement of soil fertility. The maximum value of the organic carbon stock (18.70 t ha−1), total carbon stock (20.81 t ha−1), and organic carbon sequestration (1.75 t ha−1) was observed in poultry manure at the rate of 5 t ha−1 with 50% RD. The soil bulk density decreased slightly more than that of the control, which indicated the improvement of the physical properties of soil using organic manures. Therefore, regular nourishment of soil with organic and inorganic fertilizers might help rejuvenate the soils and ensure agricultural sustainability.

An investigation was carried out in the calcareous soil of Chapai Nawabganj belonging to the High Ganges River Floodplain during November 2008 to March 2009 to examine the effect of different macro and micronutrients (N, P, K, S, Zn, B and Mo at 150, 50, 100, 20, 3, 3 and 1 kg/ha, respectively) on the growth and yield of cabbage. Application of different nutrients exhibited significant influence on the growth and yield of cabbage. The highest plant spread (70.76 cm), height (37.89 cm), leaf length (37.83 cm), leaf breadth (27.13 cm), head thickness (12.85 cm), head diameter (23.02 cm), marketable head yield (76.53 t/ha) which is 191% increase over control), early head formation and maturity were recorded from the plot receiving N, P, K and B at the rate of 150, 50, 100 and 3 kg/ha, respectively. The treatment N, P, K and S showed the highest weight of loose leaves (640 g/plant) and decreased the weight of folded leaves or head weight, whereas, the treatment N, P, K and B increased the folded leaves or maximum head weight (1894.18 g/plant).

Background: Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the second major global cereals mostly grown in winter season which led wheat plants to suffer with salinity stress. Twenty to thirty percent of the arable land of the world is present in the saline area. Therefore, it is necessary to develop salinity tolerant wheat varieties to meet the future food demand. Methods: A field experiment was carried out during November 2018 to March 2019 to observe the effect of salinity on yield and other desired plant characters and finally screening of wheat genotypes for salinity tolerance. The experiment was laid out in a complete randomized design containing three treatments with three replications. The treatments were three levels of salinity such as control, 8 dS m-1 and 15 dS m-1. Multivariate and principal components analysis was executed to evaluate yield and other plant characters. Result: The results of the experiment revealed that different plant characters showed wide range of variation under different salinity levels. Biplot analysis considering PC1 and PC2 revealed that grain yield was positively correlated with grain spike-1, spike length, thousand seed weight and total tiller plant-1. Correlation study also revealed that total tiller plant-1, spikelet spike-1, grain spike-1 and thousand seed weight showed significant and positive relation with grain yield plant-1. On the basis of yield reduction percent and yield the genotypes G12 (2.51 g), G16 (2.49 g) and G4 (2.19 g) were found suitable for 15 dS m-1 salinity.

Wheat growth, development and yield are severely affected by a wide range of abiotic stresses, and salt stress is a vital and increasing abiotic stress. Salicylic acid (SA) is a phenolic phytohormone involved in plant physiological processes. Hence, we have conducted an experiment to explore the roles of exogenous SA in mitigating salt stress in two wheat genotypes. There were eight treatments comprising (i) control, (ii) 0.5 mM SA, (iii) 1.0 mM SA, (iv) 1.5 mM SA, (v) salinity (12 dS m−1), (vi) salinity + 0.5 mM SA, (vii) salinity + 1.0 mM SA and (viii) salinity + 1.5 mM SA with two wheat genotypes viz G 200-4 and BARI gom-25. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with five replications. During the vegetative stage, salt stress significantly reduced the relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and growth characteristics of both wheat genotypes, while the exogenous application of SA in salt-stressed plants significantly improved the RWC, gas exchange activities and growth performance of both the genotypes. The leaf chlorophyll content was also degraded due to salinity treatment, although it was mitigated by the exogenous application of SA. The imposition of salt significantly reduced the number of days required for maturity, yield-contributing characteristics and the yield of both the wheat genotypes. Salt stress also significantly increased Na+ concentrations and the Na+/K+ ratio, while the K+ concentrations was decreased significantly in both the wheat genotypes. However, the exogenous application of SA in salt-stressed plants significantly reduced the salt stress effects and increased the growth and yield of wheat genotypes by enhancing RWC, gas exchange activities and photosynthetic pigments and maintaining lower Na+ concentrations and a Na+/K+ ratio. Therefore, the findings of this study suggested that the exogenous application of SA improved the salt tolerance of both wheat genotypes.