VERMICOMPOST AND FARMYARD MANURE INCREASE FERTILITY OF SODIC SOIL AND THE PRODUCTIVITY OF GREEN VEGETABLES.

  • Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Environmental Science, School of Environmental Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow-226025, India.
  • Guest Faculty, Department of Environmental Science, School of Environmental Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow-226025, India.
  • Department of Microbial Technology, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow 226015, India.
  • Professor, Department of Environmental Science, School of Environmental Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow-226025, India.
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Soil degradation due to salinization and sodication in arid and semiarid region is of global concern and studies on management of such soils can provide pragmatic solutions. In this study, we used different organic and inorganic amendments to investigate their likely effects of sodic soil properties (pH, electrical conductivity; EC, exchangeable sodium percentage; ESP) and productivity (growth and seed production) of two vegetables crops Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and the Pea (Pisum sativum). We have selected a patch of sodic soil (sodicity: pH 9.04, EC 1.05 dSm-1, ESP 78.5) divided into six blocks and each block with eight unit plots (total 48 unit plots). Dietary crops were grown with eight different amendments of chemical fertilizers and organic manures (Control, T1; NPK, T2; farmyard manure (FYM), T3; vermicompost (VC), T4; NPK+VC, T5; FYM+VC (1:1), T6; FYM+VC (1:2), T7; FYM+VC (2:1), T8). The combined use of FYM and VC showed approximately 5.97, 41.9 and 48% respective decrease in soil pH, EC and ESP and 33.2, 78.3, 29.5 and 152 increase in soil nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and soil organic carbon (OC), respectively. This decrease in soil sodicity and the increase in soil fertility showed significant increase at P < 0.05 in crops? different morphological growth parameters and growth indices such as the relative growth rate (RGR), root shoot ratio (RSR), leaf weight ratio (LWR) and leaf area ratio (LAR). We also observed a remarkable increase in seed yield of spinach and pea by 186 and 72.35 % in organic amended soil. The study reveals that combined use of FYM and VC in sodic soil might be adopted as alternate farming technology to diminish the unproductive effect of sodicity in the Indian agricultural economy.

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[Ashima Singh, Kripal Singh, Kundan Wasnik and Rana Pratap Singh (2017); VERMICOMPOST AND FARMYARD MANURE INCREASE FERTILITY OF SODIC SOIL AND THE PRODUCTIVITY OF GREEN VEGETABLES. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 5 (Feb). 2623-2632] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com

RANA PRATAP SINGH
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Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/3451      
DOI URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/3451

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