Assessment of Correlation between Growth and Yield of Blackgram with Residual Effect of Organic and Inorganic Sources of Nutrients and AM Fungi Applied to Rice in Aerobic Rice-blackgram Cropping System

Abstract

Background: Cultivation of cereal followed by legume on the same land not only provide essential dietary carbohydrate, protein and vitamin to household but also enhances soil fertility through the symbiotic process of nitrogen fixation by legume. Moreover, legume contribute quality crop residues suitable for livestock feed. Beyond these nutritional and soil health benefits, adopting such farming practices has the potential to boost the income and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The concurrent use of organic manure and inorganic fertilizer not only mitigates soil hazards but also significantly enhances crop productivity. Methods: A field experiment was conducted at wetland farms, Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India during summer-kharif seasons of the year 2022 and navarai - summer seasons of the year 2022-23 on aerobic rice-blackgram cropping system. Result: The positive influence of legumes on soil quality is considered a crucial factor in enhancing the production of non-legume crops grown in a rotation system. The success of a cropping system relies on the judicious management of resources, with a particular emphasis on the balanced utilization of organic manures, inorganic fertilizers and biofertilizer. The present study concluded that residual effect of 50% RDN through inorganic fertilizer + 25% of RDN through enriched FYM + 25% RDN through vermicompost + AM fungi + foliar application of nutrients (0.5% Urea + 1% FeSO4 + 0.5% ZnSO4 at 25 and 45 DAS) (S6) recorded significantly higher growth parameters, yield parameters and yield of succeeding blackgram compared to other sources of nutrients.