Abstract
Soil as well as nutrient management is essential for obtaining sustainable crop yields under maize–wheat cropping sequence in rain-fed sub-mountain region of Punjab. The area, suffers from ill distribution of rainfall in space and time, have steep to very steep topography and deep to very deep water-table. Field experiments were conducted on undulating terrain using participatory approach on farmers’ fields in five selected villages in District Hoshiarpur of Punjab, India to evaluate soil and nutrient management practices. The significant increase in grain yield of wheat was observed with the application of different soil and nutrient management practices over the farmers’ practice with a maximum of 34 per cent. Soil moisture storage increased by 12, 30, 35 and 45 per cent with shallow tillage, deep tillage, recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF, 75%) + FYM and raised-bed sowing, respectively, compared with the farmers’ practice. Raised-bed sowing, RDF (100%), RDF (75%) + FYM and deep tillage showed an increase of 52, 55, 57 and 37 per cent in height of maize plant over the farmers’ practice at 60 days after sowing. There was also significant increase in plant girth of maize in all the imposed treatments over farmers’ practice. The study showed that adoption of improved moisture conservation practices coupled with optimum inorganic fertilizer use along with organic manure helps in improving the crop yields of the rain-fed areas
M. S. Hadda* , S. Arora . (2006) Soil and nutrient management practices for sustaining crop yields under maize-wheat cropping sequence in sub-mountain Punjab, India, The Journal Soil & Environment , Volume 25, Issue 1.
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