Integrated nutrient managementIntegrated nutrient managementIntegrated nutrient managementIntegrated nutrient managementIntegrated nutrient management

practices for sustainablepractices for sustainablepractices for sustainablepractices for sustainablepractices for sustainable

production in cotton basedproduction in cotton basedproduction in cotton basedproduction in cotton basedproduction in cotton based

cropping systems under assuredcropping systems under assuredcropping systems under assuredcropping systems under assuredcropping systems under assured

rainfall conditionsrainfall conditionsrainfall conditionsrainfall conditionsrainfall conditions

H.L. Halemani, S.S. Hallikeri And M.B. AntaravalliAgriculture Research Station, Dharwad Farm, Karnataka INDIA

Correspondence author root@uasd.kar.nic.in; root@zrckar08kar.nic.in

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Integrated nutrient management practices for sustainable production in cotton based cropping systemsunder assured rainfall conditions

ABSTRACTABSTRACTABSTRACTABSTRACTABSTRACT

High and sustainable productivity of cotton is as-sociated with balanced and sound nutrition. Thedeclining trend in yields of cotton is related to nu-tritional problems, changes in cotton ecosystem,cropping sequence and management practicesfollowed. The nutrient supply system can be im-proved by adopting integrated nutrient manage-ment practices for the cropping system used. Farmyard manure (FYM), vermicompost (VC) and cropresidues (CR) are the best sources of organic ma-nures. Besides, crop rotation is also an importantaspect for better soil health and to obtain cropyields on a sustainable basis. With this backgroundexperiment was conducted during 1997 to 2001on permanent site under rainfed conditions at ARS,Dharwad Farm to investigate the effects of organ-ics and inorganics on the crop yields of cotton-based rotational cropping systems. The popularcropping system consisting of cotton followed bygroundnut and rabi sorghum in one cycle of twoyears was used in the experiment. Mean results of3 years experiments indicated that application ofFYM at 10 000 kg/ha increased the yield of cot-ton significantly over other organics. The sametrend was observed in all years. Combination ofFYM at 3.3 tons, VC at 0.8 tons and CR at 1.6 tons/ha produced the next highest yield of cotton ascompared to other treatments. Reduction in theapplication of the recommended dose of inorganicfertilizer (RDF) from 100 to 0% reduced the yieldof cotton significantly. Similar observations weremade even when organics were combined with fer-tilizers. It was noticed from the pooled data thatcombination of 100% RDF and FYM at 10 000 kg/ha has produced significantly higher yield of cot-ton (1594 kg/ha) compared with other treatments.Whereas rabi sorghum produced higher yield withcombined application of CR at 5000 kg/ha and50% RDF (2329 kg/ha) as against groundnut whichproduced higher yield with VC at 1250 kg and CRat 2500 kg/ha +100% RDF (692 kg/ha). Amongthe organic manures, FYM was more effective oncotton and FYM/CR were equally effective on Rabisorghum, but a combination of these organic ma-nures was better for groundnut to produce moreyields. In general, the results clearly indicated thatcombination of RDF and organic manures hasgreater scope for upgrading crop yields on a sus-tainable basis in cotton-based rotational croppingsystems. Further, this experiment is being contin-

ued on a permanent site to see the long-term ef-fects of yearly application of organic and inorganicmanures on crop yields and soil properties.

IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction

The use of mineral fertilizers is the fastest anddefinite way to improve improving crop productivity.However, the increases in cost and associated environ-mental hazards as well as lack of sustainability in yieldsunder application of such fertilizers are constraints incotton production. Low soil organic matter coupled withdeficiencies of nutrients and continuous cotton crop-ping and management practices are the main reasonsfor lack of sustainability. This has renewed the interestin the use of organic fertilizers along with inorganicfertilizers. High and sustainable productivity of cottonis associated with balanced nutrition and availability ofnutrients in the soil. Nutrient supply systems can beimproved by adopting Integrated Nutrient Management(INM) practices. Integration of organics and inorganicsneeds to be incorporated in cotton manurial schedule.Farmyard manure, which is a treasure house of nutri-ents, not only supplies major nutrients but also acts asa reservoir of micronutrients. It is both enhancing theorganic matter content of soils, as well as the waterholding capacity of the soil. In general, farmyard ma-nure improves physical, biological and chemical prop-erties of the soil. Crop residues, which is a low costinput and farm waste, acts as a nutrient supplier afterdecomposition. Man-made vermicompost is also anorganic source with higher levels of nutrients. Integratedmethods involving combination of organic and inor-ganic manures can sustain nutrient extraction andmaintain the higher level of productivity and soil fertil-ity on a long-term basis. With this background, long-term experiments on a permanent site were plannedand executed to investigate the effects of INM practiceson the yields of different crops and soil properties in acotton-based cropping system.

Experimental procedureExperimental procedureExperimental procedureExperimental procedureExperimental procedure

A field experiment was conducted under assuredrainfall condition (750 mm annual rainfall) on a per-manent site in medium deep black soil at ARS, Dharwadfarm, Karnataka, India. This experiment is being con-tinued on a permanent site and every year the sametreatment is imposed in a particular plot. The experi-ment was laid out in a split plot design with three rep-lications. Cotton crop (first year) is rotated with ground-nut in kharif and sorghum in rabi seasons (second year)in one cycle of two years. This experiment was initiatedduring 1997-98 and completed three cycles of two yearsrotation by 2002-03. Eight treatments consists of farm-yard manure (FYM) at 10000 kg/ha, crop residue (CR)at 5000 kg/ha, vermicompost (VC) at 2500 kg/ha, FYMat 5000 kg/ha + CR at 2500 kg/ha, FYM at 5000 kg/ha + VC at 1250 kg/ha, CR at 2500 kg/ha + VC at1250 kg/ha, FYM at 3300 kg/ha+ CR at 1870 kg/ha

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+ VC at 830 kg/ha and control (without organics) werein the main plots for kharif crops only and inorganicfertilizers at 0.50 and 100 percent of recommendeddose of fertilizers to each crop were in sub plots. TheRDF applied to cotton, groundnut and rabi sorghumwere 40:25:25, 25:30:25 and 50:25:0 NPK kg/ha,respectively. Organic manures were applied only tokharif crops every year 20 days before sowing and in-organic fertilizers were applied for all the crops at thetime of sowing. Cotton was sown with Sahana (G.hirsutum) variety at 60 x 30 cm spacing during June-July and harvested during January-February. Ground-nut (cv. TMV-2) is a kharif crop usually sown duringJune and harvested during September, and rabi sor-ghum variety M 35-1 was usually sown during Octoberand harvested during February. FYM, crop residue andvermicompost were applied in furrows and covered withsoil. Recommended plant protection measures weretaken as and when required for control of pests in allcrops. Observations for growth, yield parameters andyield were recorded at the time of harvesting. Soilsamples were taken at the start of the experiment andafter each cycle for the estimation of physical and chemi-cal properties.

Results and DiscussionResults and DiscussionResults and DiscussionResults and DiscussionResults and Discussion

Response of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationof organic manuresof organic manuresof organic manuresof organic manuresof organic manures

The mean of three cycles data for cotton (Table1) indicated that FYM at 10000 kg/ha has producedsignificantly 13 to 38 percent higher (1398 kg/ha) yieldsover other organics and control. Similar trends wereobserved in all years. Little information is available onthe effect of continuous manuring on crop yields. Suchstudies made by Khaini and More (1984) indicated thatcontinuous application of FYM increased the organiccarbon and available nutrients two-fold in cotton-sor-ghum rotation, and the yield of cotton was nearlydoubled. Besides, addition of organic matter improvedthe physical properties of the soil. In another study, regu-lar addition of FYM improved the organic carbon andincreased the percentage of water-stable aggregates,and thereby improved the soil structure. Hence, therewere increases in pore space, water holding capacityand microbial activity (Singh and Bhattacharya, 1989).In the present investigation, besides FYM at 10000 kg/ha, application of FYM at 3300 kg/ha + CR at 1670kg/ha + VC at 830 kg/ha has also produced morekapas yield (1240 kg/ha), which was comparable withthat of FYM at 5000 kg/ha + CR at 2500 kg/ha (1208kg/ha). Similar results were obtained byChandrashekhar et al. (1998) and they observed thatcombined application of FYM, CR and VC recordedthe highest yield of cotton in INM studies for cotton-maize cropping system. However, application of cropresidue at 5000 kg/ha or Vermicompost at 2500 kg/ha alone or their combination did not improve the yieldof cotton. Similar trend was observed for most of theyield components (Tables 3 and 4). Earlier studies also

indicated that crop residue application alone had nospectacular influence on the crop yield under rainfedagriculture (Chokhey, Singh and Wankhade, 1983) andthe increase in yield was 35 to 110 kg/ha with 5000kg/ha and 150 to 200 kg/ha with 10000 kg/ha. Un-der dryland conditions crop residue decomposition isgenerally too late or sometimes not possible. Same timethe incorporated biomass may deplete the soil mois-ture by absorbing moisture from soil thus affects thecrop growth. In this study also similar results were ob-tained with respect to cotton yield. However, the datashow that application of any organic has numericalsuperiority in yield over control in all the cycles of cot-ton production. Among the organics, FYM alone fol-lowed by combination of FYM, VC and CR, as well as acombination of FYM and CR are found to improve theyield of cotton on a sustainable basis.

Response of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationResponse of cotton to applicationof inorganic fertilizersof inorganic fertilizersof inorganic fertilizersof inorganic fertilizersof inorganic fertilizers

Application of inorganic chemical fertilizers in-creased the yield of cotton significantly from control to50% RDF and further to 100% RDF in all the cycles(Table 1). The mean data of 3 cycles indicated that cot-ton yield was related to the supply of nutrients to thecotton crop. Berger (1969) reported that cotton removesmore nutrients to produce higher yield of cotton. There-fore, cotton yield depends upon the quantity of nutri-ents applied to the crop. Similar results were obtainedby Das et al. (1991) and Mannikar (1993). Further,Chandrashekhar et al. (1998) reported that 10 to 30percent of cotton and 17 to 45 percent of maize yieldswere lost due to the reduction in chemical fertilizersfrom 100 to 50 percent of the recommended dose offertilizers. It was also find in this study that cotton yieldat 100 percent RDF (1335 kg/ha) was significantly su-perior compared to 50 percent RDF (1174 kg/ha) andthe control (931 kg/ha) where no fertilizer was appliedand that yield increase was to the extent of 43 and 26percent over control, respectively. The same trend wasalso noticed for yield parameters.

Response of cotton to combinationResponse of cotton to combinationResponse of cotton to combinationResponse of cotton to combinationResponse of cotton to combinationof organic and inorganic manuresof organic and inorganic manuresof organic and inorganic manuresof organic and inorganic manuresof organic and inorganic manures

Interaction effects were significant. Applicationof FYM at 10000 kg/ha with 100 percent RDF pro-duced significantly higher yields compared to the othertreatments (Table 1). Yield increase was significant foreach of the applied organic fertilizers when fertilizerdoses were increased from 0 to 50 percent and furtherto 100 percent RDF. This study clearly shows that cot-ton yields were increased to a greater extent when or-ganic plus inorganic manures were applied to the cot-ton. Similar results were obtained by Solaiappan (2002)and he found that combined application of organicmanure and recommended level of inorganic fertilizergave significantly and consistently higher seed cottonand sorghum grain yield. In this study cotton yield withFYM at 10000 kg/ha alone (1187 kg/ha) was compa-rable with 100 percent RDF alone (1228 kg/ha). Cot-

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Integrated nutrient management practices for sustainable production in cotton based cropping systemsunder assured rainfall conditions

ton yield was 1187 kg/ha with 10000 kg/ha of FYMand it was 1228 kg/ha with 100 percent RDF. Theseyields were increased to 1594 kg/ha when both wereapplied and improvement in yield was to the extent of30 to 34 percent. Similar trends were noticed in all theyears of cotton production. Therefore, these resultsclearly indicated that enhancement of cotton yield on asustainable basis is possible if nutrient supply is madethrough application of inorganic plus organic manures.

Effect of INM practices on theEffect of INM practices on theEffect of INM practices on theEffect of INM practices on theEffect of INM practices on theyield of groundnut, sorghum andyield of groundnut, sorghum andyield of groundnut, sorghum andyield of groundnut, sorghum andyield of groundnut, sorghum andequivalent yield of cottonequivalent yield of cottonequivalent yield of cottonequivalent yield of cottonequivalent yield of cotton

Rabi sorghum produced highest yield (Table 2)with combined application of 50 percent RDF and cropresidue at 5000 kg/ha (2329 kg/ha), as against ground-nut which produced higher yield with VC at 1.25000kg/ha+ CR at 25000 kg/ha with 100 percent RDF (692kg/ha). The effect of combination of crop residue withVC and fertilizers was more convincing with groundnutand sorghum than cotton production. It is also clearfrom the data that like cotton production, response toinorganic fertilizers irrespective of different organics yieldwas increased with increasing levels of fertilizers bothin groundnut and sorghum crops. Though the responseto organics was very meager in groundnut production,sorghum responded better to crop residue and FYMapplications. Increasing the level of fertilizers from 0 to100 percent improved the yield of all the crops irre-spective of the source of organics added. Total cottonequivalent yield (Table 5) reflects the effect of crop ro-tation and response to INM practices for production ofone cycle cropping system of two years. It is evidentfrom the yield data that FYM at 10000 kg/ha (2298kg/ha) is best among all the organics followed by FYMat 5 t + CR at 25000 kg/ha (2087 kg/ha). The datashow that the effect of crop residue with fertilizer andVC was greater on groundnut and sorghum than oncotton, thus producing best yield of cotton equivalentin one cycle of two years. Further, the effect of inor-ganic fertilizers was also quite convincing to increasethe yield of cotton when fertilizer dose was increasedfrom 0 to 50 and further to 100 percent RDF. Cottonequivalent yield of only FYM at a 10000 kg/ha appli-

cation (1944 kg/ha) was on par with 100 percent RDFapplication (2028 kg/ha). Highest yield was obtainedonly when FYM at 10000 kg/ha along with 100 % RDFwas applied (2620 kg/ha). From the data of three cyclesit is concluded that in a rotational cropping system ofcotton �groundnut (kharif) � sorghum (rabi) in two years,application of FYM at 10000 kg/ha with 100 percentRDF followed by application of FYM at 5 t + CR at25000 kg/ha with 100 percent RDF was optimum forhigher yields under assured rainfall conditions. Wher-ever FYM is in short supply farmers can supplement theorganics with crop residues to boost crop yields.

ReferencesReferencesReferencesReferencesReferences

� Berger, J. (1969). The world�s major fiber crops,their cultivation and manuring. Center du D�etudel�azote, Zurich, Switzerland.

� Chandra Shekhar, C.P., Girijesh, G.K. andHalemani, H.L. (1998). Integrated nutrient man-agement in cotton based cropping system. In Pro-ceedings of World Cotton Research Conference�2, Abstract Book, pp. 157.

� Singh, C. and Wankhade, N.P. (1983). Advancesin fertilizer management for rainfed cotton. Fertil-izer News, 2828282828: 69-75.

� Das, S.K., Sharma, K.L., Saharan, N. and BhaskarRao, U.M. (1991). Nutrient value and sustainableagriculture in southern plateau and hills region ofIndia. Fertilizer News, 3636363636: 43-49.

� Khaini, K.N. and More, D.A. (1984). Long termeffect of tillage operations and farm yard manureapplication on soil properties and crop yields. Jour-nal Of Indian Society Of Soil Science, 3232323232: 392-393.

� Mannikar, N.D. (1993). Fertilizer management incotton. In Fertilizer management in commercialcrops (Ed) Dr. Hls, Tandon. Fdco, New Delhi. Pp:26 � 46.

� Singh, K.N. and Bhattacharyya, H.C. (1989). Di-rect seeded rice, principles and practices. OxfordAnd Ibh Publishing Ltd., New Delhi, pp. 84 �99.

� Solaiappan, U. (2002). Effect of inorganic fertilizerand organic manure on cotton � sorghum rotationsin rain fed vertisol. Madras Agriculture Journal, 8989898989:448-450.

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TT TTTable 1.able 1.able 1.able 1.able 1.

Cotton yield (kg/ha) as affected by integrated nutrient m

anagement practices in cotton based cropping system

.

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Integrated nutrient management practices for sustainable production in cotton based cropping systemsunder assured rainfall conditions

TT TTTable 2.able 2.able 2.able 2.able 2.

Groundnut and Rabi Sorghum

yield as affected by integrated nutrient managem

ent practices in cotton based cropping system (m

eans of 1998-99 and 2000-01).

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TT TTTable 3.able 3.able 3.able 3.able 3.

Grow

th parameters as affected by integrated nutrient m

anagement practices in cotton based cropping system

(mean of 3 years).

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Integrated nutrient management practices for sustainable production in cotton based cropping systemsunder assured rainfall conditions

TT TTTable 4.able 4.able 4.able 4.able 4.

Yield parameters as affected by integrated nutrient m

anagement practices in cotton based cropping system

(means of 3 years).

TT TTTable 5.able 5.able 5.able 5.able 5.

Cotton equivalent yield of groundnut and rabi sorghum

and total yield of cotton per cycle of two years as affected by cotton based cropping system

asinfluenced by IN

M practices.