Dissemination of Nutrient Expert® Fertilizer Decision Support Tool for Wheat and Maize in Eastern India
A total of 24 KVKs across three states of this zone have conducted the NE® trial supported by IPNI. These KVKs are of Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. The common experimental design for all implementing KVKs was:- (i) Group-I: Farmer’s practice; (ii) Group-II: Application of recommended dose of fertilizers; and (iii) Group-III: Application of fertilizer doses as per the NE® tools developed by IPNI. The trials were conducted on wheat (by 22 KVKs), though few trials were also carried out on maize (2 KVKs) during last Rabi season pre-dominantly under Rice-Wheat production system. The unique nature of this trial was that the individual farmer was provided with all the three technological options for his/ her plot(s). The data were collected for their further analysis in order of extension of the NE® for wheat/maize to be recommended for this zone.
IPNI-2014-IND-529
2015 Annual Interpretive Summary
The study was conducted in the eastern Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal in collaboration with ICAR - Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute. The project validates and disseminates the Nutrient Expert® (NE) for wheat in farmers' fields through Krishi Vigyan Kendra, the Extension system and "last mile delivery" mechanism of ICAR. The farmers received NE-based recommendations for both maize and wheat and improved their productivity while receiving better gross return over fertilizer (GRF).
The study highlighted that the NE Wheat recommendations varied across the three different states. In all the cases, the NE-recommended plots produced higher average wheat grain yield compared to that of farmer fertilizer practice (FFP). In the case of Bihar, the average N-P2O5-K2O applications for FFP were 109-45-16 kg/ha, and for NE were 98-38-50 kg/ha. Grain yield increased by an average of 2.7 to 3.3 t/ha from FFP to NE, and have resulted in an increase in GRF of Rs. 7,642. In Jharkhand, the average applications for FFP were 49-39-10 kg/ha, and for NE were 114-50-48 kg/ha. These resulted in an increase of 2.3 to 3.8 t/ha with an increase in GRF of Rs. 20,965. In the case of West Bengal, the NPK dose increased from 100-43-40 kg/ha to 125-78-65 kg/ha from FFP to NE, and yield improvement from 2.7 to 4. 2 t/ha resulting in an increase in GRF of Rs. 20,847.