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
2016 Annual Interpretive Summary
The present study was conducted in the eastern Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) - Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute. The project validates and disseminates the use of Nutrient Expert® (NE) Wheat at 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, which improved their cropping system productivity while receiving better gross return over fertilizer prices.
This study reports for the period of 2013 to 2016 in irrigated winter wheat across the three different states. The objective of the study was to compare NE Wheat-based recommendations and the Farmer Fertilizer Practices (FFP) for irrigated wheat. In all of the cases, NE-based recommendations produced higher yields compared to FFP. In the case of Bihar, the average N:P2O5:K2O applications for FFP were 109:45:16 and for NE were 98:38:50; the average increase in grain yield was from 2.7 to 3.3 t/ha in NE over FFP and have resulted in an increase in gross return over fertilizer cost (GRF) of INR 7642 (US$120). In the case of Jharkhand, the average N:P2O5:K2O applications for FFP were 49:39:10 and the rates of NE were 114:50:48. The study reported a yield increase from 2.3 t/ha in FFP to 3.8 t/ha in NE with a GRF of INR 20,965 (US$330) for Jharkhand. In the case of West Bengal, the NPK dose increased from 100:43:40 to 125:78:65 from FFP to NE and has an average yield improvement from 2.7 to 4. 2 t/ha that resulted in an increase in GRF of INR 20,847 (US$325).