Organic Farming for Sustained Productivity of Cauliflower in North Konkan Region

摘要

Judicious use of organic manures along with chemical fertilizers is helpful in maintaining croprnyields and required soil nutrient pool on sustained basis. There is a vast scope for increasing nutrientrnsupply through use of organic manures, composts, green manures that together can contributernsignificantly to the required nutrient pool. Although, India is the second largest producer ofrnvegetables, but per capita consumption is far below the requirement. Therefore, vegetablernproduction and productivity should be increased to meet the present inadequate supply and keeprnpace with rising population for nutritional security. Thus, a two fold strategy may be useful inrnnutrient management first to continue the use of fertilizers for faster growth in agriculture andrnsecond to popularize use of crop residue recycling, green manuring, compost and bio-fertilizers.rnWith these objectives in mind, the experiment was designed to evaluate organic farming forrnsustained productivity of cauliflower in North Konkan region during winter season 2000-2001 atrnAgricultural Research and Development Foundation, Tansa on clay soil having high organic carbonrncontent, medium in available nitrogen and phosphorus and rich in available potassium. Thernexperiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The treatments comprised ofrnorganic manures as main plot treatments and three levels of fertilizer nutrients as sub-plotrntreatments.rnResults revealed that application of swastik and mahahumas each @ 5 t/ha producedrnsignificantly longer curd than the remaining organic manures. The diameter of curd was maximumrndue to phosphocompost (17.57 cm) followed by swastik (17.34 cm), FYM (17.07 cm) and mahahumasrn(16.67 cm) each @ 5 t/ha. All the organic manures showed their superiority over control. Applicationrnof swastik constantly showed its superiority by recording significantly higher weight of curd (772.22rng/plant) than the remaining organic manures. Application of swastik @ 5 t/ha clearly showed itsrnsuperiority over the other organic manures by recording 178.81 per cent higher curd yield overrncontrol. The chemical studies showed that the highest uptake of NPK was noted due to application ofrnswastik with lowest depletion of nitrogen in soil, while phosphocompost improved the phosphorusrnstatus of soil. The lowest depletion of soil potassium was due to swastik. 100% RDF recorded thernhighest plant height, plant spread, number of leaves and dry matter followed by 75% RDF. Similarlyrnmaximum length, diameter, weight of curd and crud yield was significantly higher due to 100% RDFrnfollowed by 75% RDF and control.rnThe highest net return was obtained with swastik @ 5 t/ha + 100% RDF (Rs. 1,73,86/ha)rnfollowed by phosphocompost and mahahumas each @ 5 t/ha. The B:C ratio was the highest withrnFYM @ 5 t/ha + 75% RDF (3.14).rnThus, combined application of organic manures and fertilizer nutrients could help to reducernthe deterioration of soil fertility status and was very much remunerative.