Influence of rotation and sources of nutrients on soil properties and productivity of finger millet (Eleusinecoracana L. Gaertn.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the All India Co-ordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru during kharif 2013-14. The experiment was laid out with 20 treatment combinations with three factors using factorial RBD with two replications comprised of on a permanent manurial trial with 35th crop cycle. Application of FYM at 10 t ha-1 has recorded significantly higher grain yield (1.76 t ha-1), maximum water holding capacity (MWHC) of 43.85 % and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) of 357.60?g TPF g-1 24 h-1 obtained after harvest of the crop as compared to application of maize residues at 5 t ha-1 (1.37 t ha-1, 42.27 % and 193.0?g TPF g-1 24 h-1 respectively) due to improved growth and yield parameters of finger millet. However, finger millet-groundnut rotation has given significantly higher grain yield (1.78 t ha-1), MWHC (43.66 %) and DHA (298.48?g TPF g-1 24 h-1) after harvest of the crop over mono cropping of finger millet (1.34 t ha-1, 42.46% and 252.12?g TPFg-1 24 h-1respectively ). Among different nutrient sources, application of organic matter with 100 % RDF have given significantly higher grain yield (2.74 t ha-1), MWHC (45.86 %) and DHA (431.13?g TPF g-1 24 h-1) after harvest of the crop compared to absolute control (0.28 t ha-1, 41.76 % and 133.67?g TPFg-1 24 h-1 respectively). The 100 % recommended dose of fertilizer + organic matter significantly increased yield attributes because of improved soil physical and chemical properties and increased microbial activity of the soil with continued application of organic matter.