Every year total cultivable land of the country is turning into nonagricultural land at the rate of 0.73% (Molla, 2016), while total population is projected to be 201.3 million by 2051 (El-Saharty et al., 2014). So, meeting food demand by maintaining soil health is a great challenge. Pulses are the second most important group of crops after cereals (Chandra et al., 2020). So, it is the high time to conduct research on pulses. Pulses are rich source of protein and play a significant role in correcting the prevalent malnutrition in the country like Bangladesh and India (Singh et al., 2015). Among the pulses, fieldpea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important grain legume in the Asia, Europe, North America, Japan and Australia but in Bangladesh, fieldpea is going to be a major pulse crop within a few years (BBS, 2016). It is the second most important legume crop of the world (Pawar et al., 2017). Garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) belongs to the family Fabaceae is one of the world's oldest domesticated crops cultivated before 10th and 9 th millennia BC (Zohary and Hopf, 2000). It is highly nutritive which contains high proportion of digestive protein Article History

An experiment was carried out to assess the effect of integrated organic and inorganic nitrogen on growth and nutrient concentration in summer onion (Allium cepa var. BARI Piaz-2). The study was done on a silty clay loam soil of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Farm, Dhaka during kharif (March to October) season. The soil of the experimental site belongs to the Tejgaon series of AEZ No. 28, Madhupur Tract, classified as Shallow Red Brown Terrace Soils in Bangladesh soil classification system. Twelve treatments were used in the experiment and in each treatment, different combinations of urea, cowdung, and vermicompost were used to supply nitrogen (N) at the rate of 120 kg/ha. The treatments were arranged in a RCBD with three replications included- control or no fertilizer supplied (T1), 120 kg N/ha supplied from urea (T2), 100 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 20 kg from cowdung (T3), 100 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 20 kg from vermicompost (T4), 80 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 40 kg from cowdung (T5), 80 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 40 kg from vermicompost (T6), 60 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 60 kg from cowdung (T7), 60 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 60 kg from vermicompost (T8), 40 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 80 kg from cowdung (T9), 40 kg N/ha supplied from urea with 80 kg from vermicompost (T10), 120 kg N/ha supplied from cowdung (T11), 120 kg N/ha supplied from vermicompost (T12). Data on plant height, number of leaves, leaf length, bulb length, and bulb weight of onion were recorded. Samples of bulb and leaf were analyzed for determining the total nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and sulphur content. Height of plant ranged from 24.25 to 39.25 cm with lowest and highest value from T1 and T5, respectively. Like plant height, the longest leaf length (34.35 cm) and bulb length (2.79 cm) was observed in T5, whereas the shortest leaf length (21.20 cm) and bulb length (2.40 cm) was recorded in T1 treatment. Similarly treatment T5 showed the highest value for both bulb weight (30.40 g) and bulb yield (12.16 t/ha), whereas the lowest bulb weight (14.90 g) and bulb yield (5.96 t/ha) was obtained from T1 treatment. Statistically insignificant variations were recorded on number of leaves/plant. The highest nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and sulphur content in bulb (2.30, 0.185, 1.71 and 0.96%, respectively) and in leaf (2.91, 0.183, 2.45, and 0.98%, respectively) were recorded in treatment T5. Whereas, the lowest nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and sulphur content in bulb (1.41, 0.055, 0.89, and 0.66%, respectively) and in leaf (2.15, 0.053, 1.71 and 0.63%, respectively) was found in T1. Therefore, the overall results suggest that treatment T5 which supplied 40 kg N/ha from cowdung and rest 80 kg from inorganic urea resulted in maximum plant growth and nutrient concentration and can be recommended for optimum production of summer onion DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v39i3.21995 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 39(3): 529-545, September 2014

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