Improving nutrient use efficiency and profitability in rainfed production systems
Prevalence of yield gaps, multiple nutrient deficiencies and low nutrient use efficiencies in rainfed region helped in initiating this project. The project was aimed at establishing strategies for improving nutrient use efficiencies and enhancing productivity and profitability of farmers in the rainfed region.
IPNI-2010-IND-514
15 Feb 2011
Annual Interpretive Summary
In most of the semi-arid regions of India, a single crop is grown during the rainy or post rainy season with the land remaining fallow for the rest of the period. Maize is one of the important cereal crops grown in these regions during kharif(summer) season. About 20 to 30% of the annual rainfall that occurs during the post rainy season (October to December) goes largely unutilized. Legumes like horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) can be grown to utilize this rainfall for off season fodder production or for incorporation into the soil to improve soil organic carbon and partially meet the nutrient requirement of rainy season crops. Though horsegram is not an assured crop for grain production in rabi(winter) season in a deficit rainfall year, it is an assured crop for biomass production. The current project was initiated to identify nutrient management strategies under conservation tillage systems to improve productivity and nutrient use efficiency in a maize-horsegram cropping sequence in dryland condition.
The experimental soil was slightly acidic in reaction (pH 5.1), low in organic carbon (0.34 %), low in available N (141 to 153 kg/ha), medium in available P (16 to 19 kg/ha) and available K (154 to 188 kg/ha). Among micronutrients, Zn was deficient (0.48 mg/kg). Maize received 150-60-80 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha along with 30 kg S, 10 kg Zn, and 0.5 kg B. No significant difference in grain and stover yield of maize was observed among the different crop establishment systems. Highest yields of grain (4.7 t/ha) and stover (7.9 t/ha) were seen with the optimum treatment followed by yields under B omission (4.4 and 6.9 t/ha), S omission (4.2 and 7.2 t/ha) and lowest productivity was in the control plot (1.3 and 3.5 t/ha). Horsegram was sown after maize in the experimental plots with similar treatment design. Samples are now being analyzed to estimate nutrient use efficiency and economics of cultivation along with residue estimations, rate of decomposition of residue, and the effect of crop residues on profile moisture content of the experimental plots. India-014