Evaluation of zero budget natural farming organic and inorganic systems of nutrition in forage based cropping systems

Abstract

newline A field experiment entitled Evaluation of zero budget natural farming, organic and inorganic systems of nutrition in forage based cropping systems was conducted at Research Farm of Fodder Section, CSK HPKV, Palampur from Kharif 2018 to Rabi 2019-20. Soil of the experimental field was acidic in reaction, medium in organic carbon, low in available nitrogen, medium in available phosphorus and available potassium. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications, consisting of two cropping systems i.e. sorghum + pearl millet oat + sarson and sorghum + pearl millet wheat and ten nutrient management treatments i.e. absolute control (T1), 5% Jeevamrit (T2), 10% Jeevamrit (T3), seed treatment with Beejamrit + 5% Jeevamrit (T4), seed treatment with Beejamrit + 10% Jeevamrit (T5), 10 t/ha FYM + 5% Jeevamrit (T6), 10 t/ha FYM + 10% Jeevamrit (T7), 50% recommended N + 10 t/ha FYM + 5% Jeevamrit (T8), 50% recommended N + 10 t/ha FYM + 10% Jeevamrit (T9) and recommended dose of NPK through inorganic sources (T10). Integrated nutrient management i.e. 50 per cent recommended N + 10 t/ha FYM + 10 per cent Jeevamrit and 50 per cent recommended N + 10 t/ha FYM + 5 per cent Jeevamrit and recommended NPK behaving alike resulted in better growth (emergence count, plant height, shoot number and dry matter accumulation), higher total green fodder equivalent yield, nutrient uptake (N, P and K), crude protein yield and system productivity of sorghum + pearl millet - oat + sarson/wheat cropping systems. An increase in soil organic carbon and microbial population (bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi) was observed with the integrated nutrient management (50% recommended N + 10 t/ha FYM + Jeevamrit) and organic practices (10 t/ha FYM + Jeevamrit) over the initial status at the end of experiment. Integrated nutrient management improved the available soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium over initial values. Significantly higher available soil nitrogen was obtained with the integrated nutrient m