Impact of long-term fertilizer application on soil fertility and productivity of finger millet under monocropping and finger millet-groundnut rotation in Alfisols

AbstractThe experiment was conducted during kharif 2019 in the long-term field experiment plots maintained since 1978 at the All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), UAS, Bangalore to study the impact of long-term fertilizer application on soil fertility and productivity of finger millet under finger millet monocropping and finger millet-groundnut rotation in Alfisols. The experiment was laid out in a RCBD with three factors combination consisting of two sources of organic manure (S1: FYM @ 10 t/ha, S2: maize residue @ 5/ha), two cropping system (R1: finger millet - groundnut rotation, R2: finger millet monocropping) and five nutrient management (T1: absolute control, T2: Organic manure, T3: Organic manure + 50% RDF, T4: Organic manure + 100% RDF, T5: RDF). Among the source of organic manures, application of farmyard manure FYM @ 10 t/ ha recorded significantly higher grain (3312 kg/ha) and straw yield (3991 kg/ha) and improved the soil available N 155.5 (kg/ha), (130.4 kg/ha), K2O (137.6 kg/ha), Ca (2.06 c mol/kg), Mg (0.95 c mol/kg), S (11.03 mg/kg), Fe (17.31 mg/kg), Mn (17.31 mg/ P2O5 kg), Cu (0.95 mg/kg) and Zn (1.35 mg/kg). The physical properties viz., bulk density values were reduced to (1.34 Mg/m3), whereas MWHC (43.6%), FC (10.0%) and PWP (5.1%) showed higher values with application of FYM @ 10 t/ha as compared to maize residue @ 5 t/haapplication. Finger millet - groundnut rotation recorded significantly higher finger millet yield and soil fertility status than monocropping. Among, nutrient management techniques, application of organic manure + 100% RDF recorded significantly higher finger millet grain (4329 kg/ha) and straw yield (5335 kg/ha). Overall, integration of FYM 10 t/ha with 100% RDF was found superior for finger millet productivity, sustainable soil health and among cropping system, finger millet-groundnut rotation was superior compared to finger millet monocropping. The sustainable yield index (0.73) was superior with application of FYM 10 t/ha +100% RDF under rotation cropping system.