Abstract
Crop productivity of eroded lands is very poor due to removal of top fertile soil losing organic matter and plant nutrients, with consequent exposure of the sub-soil with poor fertility status. Crop productivity of such lands needs to be restored in order to help farmers feed many mouths because of increased population and high land pressure. A field experiment was laid out at Thana, Malakand Agency for three years, during 2003-2004 to 2005- 2006 to study the effect of integrated plant nutrient management on the yield of wheat. The fertilizer treatments consisted of farmer’s practice: T1 (60-45-0 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1), recommended fertilizer rate: T2 (120-90-60 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1 + 5 kg Zn ha-1), and combined application of organic and inorganic sources of plant nutrients: T3 (FYM @ 20 t ha-1 plus 60-90-60 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1 + 5 kg Zn ha-1). The results showed that the combined application of FYM with NPK Zn increased the grain yield significantly over the other two treatments with an increase of 58-88% over the farmer’s practice and 18-28% over the recommended dose. As regards straw yields, T2 and T3 increased the yields significantly over farmer’s practice (T1). However, T2 and T3 were at par with each other. Mungbean-wheat system increased the yield of wheat during 2005-2006 by 24% over maize-wheat system. Bulk density was considerably decreased in T3 and water holding capacity increased over a period of time. Organic matter content was improved, by T3 followed by T2. Similarly soil P and Zn contents were increased considerably in T2 and T3. It could be concluded from these results that the crop productivity of eroded lands can be restored and the soil fertility status improved with integrated plant nutrient management practices.
S. Ali1, A.U. Bhatt, F. Khan1, A. Ghani2. (2007) Integrated plant nutrient management and cropping system for restoring crop productivity of an eroded land , The Journal Soil & Environment , Volume 26, Issue 1.
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