Sustaining productivity of wheat–soybean cropping system through integrated nutrient management practices on the Vertisols of central India

Abstract

Wheat-soybean is one of the most dominant cropping systems on the Vertisols of central India. Cultivation of durum wheat in winter season (November to April) has a considerable potential due to congenial climate, while soybean in rainy season (June to October) has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last two decades in the region. Beside including a legume (soybean) in sequence with a cereal crop (wheat), combined use of available organic sources along with chemical fertilizers may prove beneficial for long-term productivity and sustainability of the system. A long-term experiment was conducted during 1995-2000 on the fine-textured Vertisols at Indore, India to study the effect of combined use of farmyard manure (FYM), poultry manure, vermicompost and biofertilizers (Azotobacter+phosphate solubilizing bacteria) with 0.5 and 1.0 NPK (120 kg N+26.2 kg P+33.3 kg K ha −1 ) on wheat, and residual effect on following soybean. Grain yield of aestivum wheat in the initial 2 years and durum wheat in the later 3 years was significantly increased with 0.5 NPK+poultry manure at 2.5 t ha −1 or FYM at 10 t ha −1 compared with 0.5 NPK alone, and was on par with 1.0 NPK. However, the highest productivity was obtained when these organic sources were applied along with 1.0 NPK. Quality parameters of durum wheat viz protein content, hectolitre weight and sedimentation value showed improvement, and yellow berry content was significantly lower with combined use of NPK+organic sources compared with NPK alone and control. Soybean did not show much response to residual effect of nutrient management treatments applied to wheat. Wheat gave higher profit than soybean, particularly in the later years due to lower grain yields and market price of soybean. However, the superiority of FYM as well as poultry manure along with 1.0 NPK was evident on the overall profitability of the system. Various soil fertility parameters including chemical and biological properties showed conspicuous improvement over the initial status under the treatments of FYM and poultry manure. Sustainability yield index was maximum under 1.0 NPK, followed by 1.0 NPK+ poultry manure or FYM. It was concluded that application of available organic sources, particularly FYM and poultry manure along with full recommended dose of NPK fertilizers to wheat was essential for improving productivity, grain quality, profitability, soil health and sustainability of wheat-soybean system.

Response of soybean genotypes to salinity in germination stage

“…For instance, application of 30:26:25% kg ha -1 NPK + 4000 kg ha -1 manure in India effectively yielded higher soybean productivity (Bandyopadhyay et al 2010), meanwhile other studied reported that application of 2500 kg ha -1 poultry manure significantly improved soybean yield and seed quality (Behera et al 2007). The difference dosage effect of manure on every plant cultivated actually was affected by the nutrient content of manure and the soil.…”

Conjoint Application of Organic and Inorganic Sources of Nutrients in Relation to System Productivity, Profitability, Soil Fertility and Economics of Rice (Oryza sativa)-Wheat (Triticum aestivum) Cropping System

“…Subba Rao et al, 1998 andBehera et al, 2007 reported similar result. Control-NPK(00-00-00) Control-NPK(00-00-00) T 2 RDF -NPK (120-60-60) ha Table.2 Effect of organic and inorganic source of plant nutrients application on Yield, REY, system productivity, profitability and economics of rice -wheat cropping system This was evidently due to addition of organic matter containing major and micronutrients, as well as their solubilizing effect on native nutrients (Manna et al, 2003 andBehera et al, 2007). Thus, it may be concluded that conjoint application of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients enhanced yield and improved soil fertility.…”

“…The soil available P increased by 62, 45 and 36% for treatments T 4 , T 5 and T 6 , respectively over the control (T 1 ), it was reported that organic manuring as sludge, vermicompost and sesbania played a beneficial role in retaining a major portion of the added P in plant available form by suppressing P sorption (Iyamuremye and Dick 1996) and improving soil P fertility status (Reddy et al, 1999 andBehera et al, 2007). Significantly higher concentration of available P in customized fertilizer might be attributed to its higher rate of addition.…”

Improvement in Soil Physical, Chemical and Microbiological Properties during Cropping Cycles under Different Nutrient Managements in Western Himalayas

“…Also an understanding of the dynamics of carbon (C) stock in soils, as impacted by management strategies, is necessary to identify the pathways of C sequestration in soils and for maintaining soil organic C (SOC) at a level critical for up keeping soil health and also for restraining global warming (Bastia et al, 2013, Bonilla et al, 2012. Therefore, fractionating and quantifying the labile and recalcitrant C pools could provide valuable information for better understanding SOC changes and the underlying mechanisms (Behera et al, 2007). Long-term fertilizer experiments showed that applying chemical fertilizer in combination with farmyard manure significantly increased SOC content more than using chemical fertilizer alone in tropical cropping system (Lima et al, 2009) and semi-arid tropics (Banger et al, 2009).…”

“…The maximum microbial growth in organic treated plots was due to the presence of easily water soluble C and N in FYM (Paul et al, 2003), which acts as a source of energy for soil organisms, whereas the easily soluble C component was missing in mineral fertilizer (Behera et al, 2007) and, hence, the microbial population was less in the plots under NPK. The current findings are in the agreement with results obtained by (Bonilla et al, 2012, Zhang et al, 2012.…”